Match Report: Bristol City Women 0-0 Birmingham City Women

Match Report: Bristol City Women 0-0 Birmingham City Women

Posted on: 16 Sep 2024

The home crowd welcomed a fresh era of football today at Ashton Gate stadium with new interim head coach Loren Dykes hoping to get the crowd on side in her first home game in charge.

 

Following the departure of former head coach Lauren Smith, The Reds were keen to start their 24/25 season in the Barclays Women's Championship strongly. The campaign began last weekend with a draw at Southampton as new signing Lexi Lloyd-Smith opened her account for City, coming back to haunt her former club. Dykes named one change this afternoon; Jasmine Bull replaced Mari Ward. Identically to last time out, City set up with a rigid four-four-two, skipper Napier finding herself in the unorthodox position of wide left of the midfield four. Today's opposition fielded a team with one change post their 5-0 drubbing of Sunderland just seven days prior. Captain Cho So-Hyun replaced Ashanti Akpan as the deep-lying midfielder for the away side.

 

It was an end-to-end opening ten minutes in BS3 and today’s referee Lucy May was already around the action. Live-wire Lloyd-Smith introduced herself to the home fans, lapping up the applause with a bright start on the right flank. Before minute fifteen both keepers were in the spotlight, a lightning-fast reaction from Fran Bentley just moments before her counterpart Lucy Thomas was almost dispossessed in her area.

The resulting corner for The Reds almost induced the opener. An out-swinger from Emily Syme caused pandemonium in the Birmingham City penalty box before the ball bounced onto a silver platter for a Napier volley. To the crowd's dismay, the ball flew over the crossbar, however, the home side looked the stronger in the first half.

 

As we neared minute forty-five, Birmingham strung together some sharp moves slicing through the City midfielders effortlessly. City’s number 7, Abi Harrison, found herself dropping deeper and deeper to support her teammates in the middle. New coach Dykes needed to instil some discipline through the ranks with her halftime talk. Thirteen minutes into the second half we saw the first change. Birmingham goal machine Lucy Quinn departed the field for debutant Ava Baker. After a brace last week, Quinn was left frustrated this afternoon.

 

Following a slow start to the second half, just after the hour mark the home team had the crowd off their seats as they eased through the Birmingham half. A combination of Abi Harrison and Lexi Lloyd-Smith down the right created an opening for a wicked ball in, played by the number ten. The ball spun across the Birmingham six-yard box, through the eye of a needle to Napier. She must have thought it was guaranteed to ripple the back of the net, but in came Rebecca McKenna rescuing the ball off the line - the crowd could not believe it.

Barely minutes later, Blues’ Tegan McGowan embarked on a mazy run, blazing past defenders as if they were not there. Edging closer to the left of Bentley’s area a low, powerful drive left the attacker's right boot calling the City number 1 into drastic action. The shot was sent just inside of the post requiring a miraculous fingertip save from Bentley, clawing the ball away from the brink of what would have been the opener.

 

On the seventy-five-minute mark, we finally saw movement in the home dugout as Harrison and Lloyd-Smith were replaced with like-for-like changes in Morgan and Wooley. Launching attack after attack, both teams were anticipating the final whistle. The game could have gone either way in the final five minutes. On minute eighty-seven, the home side finally thought they had their chance. A barrage of shots rained from all directions after numerous deflections, but keeper Lucy Thomas stood firm, ensuring she claimed her clean sheet bonus

 

Referee Lucy May put the whistle to her lips, closing this afternoon's fixture in the Women’s Championship with both teams wondering; two points dropped, or one point gained?

 

 

Dykes was delighted with the defensive performance from her team, stating, “A clean sheet...I’ve been banging on about that for a while.”, before adding, “A performance and seeing the consistency from the group is what I enjoy the most.” Defender Harley Bennett also expressed her contentment with the clean sheet and performance. “Week to week we (the back line) are growing. We’re thrilled with a clean sheet[.] It’s something we can build on.”

 

Despite it being not quite the result, The Reds wanted, there seems to be a positive feel around the side. Bigger and better things are expected to come from this group, going into the third game of the league season unbeaten will be huge for confidence. Loren Dykes will be keen to get three points under her belt, eying promotion back to the promised land of the WSL after an unfortunate spell last season.

 

Attendance: 1,956

 

Images courtesy of Bristol City WFC

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Article by:

Olly Boyce

Sports-mad A-level student with his heart set on a career in football journalism. He’s played in Bristol’s top level of youth football, the Junior Premier League and years at Bristol Rovers Academy. Olly is hoping to secure a job/apprenticeship/trainee-ship in any kind of sports media. He can be contacted at ollyboyce09@gmail.com.