Durham Women continued their unbeaten league streak in 2019 as a Nicki Gears goal was enough to down Lewes at the Dripping Pan.
The Wildcats now haven’t lost in the league since early December and showed resilience to claim a fifth straight second tier victory.
Lewes created their fair share of chances but couldn’t build on the momentum of back-to-back wins and remain third bottom in the table.
The Rooks started on the backfoot when a Durham corner was cleared to Kathryn Hill who powered a shot over the bar.
The home side came extremely close to breaking the deadlock after 28 minutes – Sarah Kempson half-volleyed a cross to Jess King whose header crashed off the underside of the bar before Kempson then flashed a deep free-kick across goal.
It was Durham, though, who broke the deadlock when Abi Cottam took the ball down perfectly before threading it through to Gears and the Durham striker slid the ball past an onrushing Baker.
In the second half, Lee Sander’s side started to try a bit more from range. Beth Hepple had one of these long-range efforts, but her shot was caught by Baker.
Then Baker had to tip Emily Roberts’ half volley over the bar. as the away side built up a head of steam.
Gears nearly had a second with a quarter of an hour to go, her cross floating onto the crossbar with Baker beaten.
Durham were indebted to Hannah Reid late on as she made two fine saves to keep them in the clash – and they proved vital as the Wildcats picked up three points which keeps their promotion dreams alive.