Title favourites Stoke City Ladies completed a November Women's Premier League double against Ewe Rams at the weekend as they followed up their 3-0 away win two weeks ago with an equally impressive 5-1 home victory on Sunday. Little over three weeks ago Derby County Ladies sat top of the league, however one point from a possible nine has seen them slip to third and the manner of the loss at Stoke will be of concern.

Things looked bright for the visitors early on and culminated with Katie Lowder chipping home from 25 yards to give Derby a deserved lead, however the home side slowly stamped their authority on the game and scored two goals shortly before the interval. Things went from bad to worse after the break and two well executed set piece strikes either side of a well worked move from midfield saw Stoke move into a 5-1 lead on 65 minutes. Derby managed to regroup and exert themselves back into the game however neither side added to the score.

For Manager Stuart Wilson, the game represented a opportunity missed. " Stoke deserved their victory at our place a couple of weeks back, however I felt the score line flattered them somewhat. On the back of an extra weeks training time with the group due to our county cup walkover against Ilkeston, I felt quietly confident of us getting something from the game. We've put in the hard yards in the first twenty minutes and been rewarded for it, however we have then failed to maintain that level and when you do that good sides punish you "

Wilson will be at Wembley next Friday with a delegation from the club having been shortlisted for the Premier League Manager of the Year award on the back of an outstanding set of results since his appointment at the start of February, however his focus is very much on seeing his side return to winning ways. " We played things down when things were going well, and we shall do likewise now that they are not. If we have aspirations to progress from this league then we need to be matching or bettering the Stoke's of this league, however at this moment in time we are not doing the things that we did earlier in the season or at the end of last season when we beat Stoke. As a collective we need to get ourselves back to that point "

Ewe Rams focus shifts to league cup action this Sunday when they host high flying Sporting Albion at their Borrowash Victoria home ground. Kick off is at 2pm with free admission to all DCFC season ticket holders.