Bristol City Women

[Parkwaymom]

9 hours ago, RedLionLad said:

To be fair, SL and his wife attended quite a few games around 10 years ago at the Stoke Gifford Stadium.

Maybe I misread that and there’s more to do with him becoming less personally involved in all areas of the business over that period. As has been mentioned women’s football has moved on a a rapid rate and any minor lack of engagement results in being left behind. 

[RedLionLad]

There’s a good chance of BCWFC climbing 3 places with a home win against bottom club Aston Villa today. The 3 teams above, West Ham, Brighton and Everton play Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea respectively.

[shahanshahan]

Harrison makes her first start of the season, Marckese returns to goal, Morgan is playing in defence. Napier unfortunately misses out today.

Woolley could make her first WSL appearance this season today if she comes on. Aspin, Connolly & Rodgers start again having done so last Sunday & on Thursday in the Conti Cup

KO 2pm, live on FA Player if you're not at Ashton Gate. I'm in Frankfurt, Germany right now so I won't be able to watch the game (I'm about to watch my NFL team New England Patriots play!)

[Sleepy1968]

0-0 after 42 mins.

This is a more interesting watch than the QPR game.

Villa on top, but city aren't being battered by any means.

[Port Said Red]

What happened to Marckese?

[Sleepy1968]

6 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

What happened to Marckese?

She did a knee (?) (Leg any way) with a bad unchallenged landing collecting a ball near end of first half. Stayed on and leg gave out as soon as she kicked a ball in anger. She was looking very good as well.

[RedLionLad]

Still 0-0 at 65 mins. Villa looking the most likely to score.

[RedLionLad]

Villa 1-0 up

76 mins

[RedLionLad]

Villa 2-0 up

85 mins

 

[RedRock]

Gotta save that one … 0-2.

Pity. We have some players that could compete look strong, composed with skills, but are carrying some that look like they’re running a treacle and tragically, make so many unforced errors.

 

 

[Sleepy1968]

Just now, RedRock said:

Gotta save that one … 0-2.

Pity. We have some players that could compete look strong, composed with skills, but are carrying some that look like they’re running a treacle and tragically, make so many unforced errors.

 

 

Yep.

You can't really argue with the score, we've been miles behind in the second half.

[Full nelson]

Gave 110% but just aren't going enough unfortunately. Zero pace and the ability to not hold the ball is hard to watch. 

[cidered abroad]

Yet another example of the tightening of the purse strings at Bristol City. Do the Women's team stand any chance of staying up?

[Full nelson]

38 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Yet another example of the tightening of the purse strings at Bristol City. Do the Women's team stand any chance of staying up?

Zero!! 

[cidercity1987]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

Yet another example of the tightening of the purse strings at Bristol City. Do the Women's team stand any chance of staying up?

Compare Bristol City FC (men and women combined) income to ALL of the womens rivals and you'll see the issue

[phantom]

I'm starting to get a bit concerned about Lauren Smith. 

Setting up with five across the back against a team like Villa was a really negative tactic and ultimately resulted in us struggling to keep the ball up the top end of the pitch. 

That was a game we couldn't afford to lose in the scheme of the whole season. 

On another topic, have the rugby lines ever been so evident at a football match before? 

[phantom]

Interesting to hear Carla Ward referenced how defensive we set up 

[Red Army 87]

53 minutes ago, phantom said:

I'm starting to get a bit concerned about Lauren Smith. 

Setting up with five across the back against a team like Villa was a really negative tactic and ultimately resulted in us struggling to keep the ball up the top end of the pitch. 

That was a game we couldn't afford to lose in the scheme of the whole season. 

On another topic, have the rugby lines ever been so evident at a football match before? 

The rugby lines were right in my sight line and definitely not covered as they were last time.

On the tactics I very much agree, it felt after a few attempts to be positive in the first 15-20 mins city (consciously or not) seemed to set up to take a draw. It felt like only a matter of time before villa would score as players tired.

[Erithacus]

Dissappointing to lose to a fellow struggler. Really was a relegation six-pointer today and sadly we didn't keep the advantage from the win last week at West Ham. I have long thought that Villa are in a somewhat false position as their squad is better than the table shows, a touch of the 'too good to go down' if you will. However, we set our stall out right from the whistle as a 5-4-1 out and barely did anything else all game. For the opening period we looked tight and determined, the defence proving able to squeeze out Villa's attacks comfortably. Whilst we had some impact of getting upfield and carving out a chance there was hope. Furness had a dipping volley that was just tipped over, but shots were limited and diminished as time went on.

With Ffion Morgan starting at fullback, she kept her opponent at bay well and also managed to raid up the wing on a few occasions, giving box-to-box effort. The centre backs had a pretty firm grip and it was even to begin with. Marckese did well until clashing with the post and having to go off just before the half. Meanwhile it was great to see Abi Harrison back - even if she was at the unfamiliar position of left half and lasted an hour. She did well and tried to get on the attack at every moment. Rachel Furness was busy in the middle and kept prompting her teammates. Both were taken off in the second half and it left the middle of the park to Villa.

What was apparent was the need to keep the ball and make progress, and that was what we lacked - particularly as time went on. Having locked in the 5-4-1, we tended to break up an attack and boot it upfield - only to have it returned immediately. We had no outlet, gifting the ball back too often. Almost inevitably, we cracked later in the second half; former Robin Ebony Salmon applied the second late on.

It was illustrating to have 4,400 at the Gate today. Seems we have a bigger Lioness Spotters fanbase than City fans in town. It is also looking like the WSL has two distinct sections: the 'haves' at the top, the 'have nots' at the bottom - a situation not totally unheard of, but it will be focussing the minds a little more now. With other results not unfavourable, we still have a long way to go. A long season, no doubt.

[elhombrecito]

I didn't watch the game, but a bit of a worry to be seemingly dominated at home against a team who hadn't won a single point before today.

[Lewisdabaron]

4 hours ago, phantom said:

I'm starting to get a bit concerned about Lauren Smith. 

Setting up with five across the back against a team like Villa was a really negative tactic and ultimately resulted in us struggling to keep the ball up the top end of the pitch. 

That was a game we couldn't afford to lose in the scheme of the whole season. 

On another topic, have the rugby lines ever been so evident at a football match before? 

Pitch looked awful with all the white lines all over it. I know there was rugby less than 24hrs prior but zero effort to cover them. Embarassing when you see tweets of how nice the pitch was looking in BS7. 

[Eco]

At least we kept Rachel Daly from scoring. She was a class above anyone else on the pitch and also puts herself about a bit, in a good way.

Thought we looked good for a point, Ebony Salmon changed the game though.

Not sure what's going on with the lack of bodies to get the ball once out of play, the Villa keeper had to go to the corner flag to get one first half, embarrassing.

 

 

[Engvall’s Splinter]

7 hours ago, Lewisdabaron said:

Pitch looked awful with all the white lines all over it. I know there was rugby less than 24hrs prior but zero effort to cover them. Embarassing when you see tweets of how nice the pitch was looking in BS7. 

Who plays in BS7?

[Hamdon Mart]

Would have thought it was inevitable that City would start with the 5-4-1 as I'm sure it is how they set up for the last three games, a win over West Ham and two narrow defeats against Arsenal in League and Cup.

The plan may have been to stay in the game for as long as possible, don't concede silly goals at bad time and try to catch Villa on the break. However "the breaks" didn't come often enough and aside from Furniss's volley, there wasn't much else tbh. Add in two bad breaks in Marckese's injury and a deflected first goal and it wasn't to be their day.

Others have said this too so not controversial but there's very little pace going forward aside from Ffion Morgan. I like seeing her play more as a winger but that means shuffling the defence again which isn't ideal. She brings a freshness and energy when she attacks and she's a very good player but we don't get to see that in a 5-4-1 unless she is the wide right player of the 4, and not the 5. 

Given that City are one point off ninth place with a goal difference that is reasonably within those above and with only a quarter of the season gone, all is far from lost. Only one team go down, it doesn't have to be City. 

Final thought, I'd have loved to have seen Aimee Palmer in this team. 

[old_eastender]

1 hour ago, Hamdon Mart said:

Would have thought it was inevitable that City would start with the 5-4-1 as I'm sure it is how they set up for the last three games, a win over West Ham and two narrow defeats against Arsenal in League and Cup.

The plan may have been to stay in the game for as long as possible, don't concede silly goals at bad time and try to catch Villa on the break. However "the breaks" didn't come often enough and aside from Furniss's volley, there wasn't much else tbh. Add in two bad breaks in Marckese's injury and a deflected first goal and it wasn't to be their day.

Others have said this too so not controversial but there's very little pace going forward aside from Ffion Morgan. I like seeing her play more as a winger but that means shuffling the defence again which isn't ideal. She brings a freshness and energy when she attacks and she's a very good player but we don't get to see that in a 5-4-1 unless she is the wide right player of the 4, and not the 5. 

Given that City are one point off ninth place with a goal difference that is reasonably within those above and with only a quarter of the season gone, all is far from lost. Only one team go down, it doesn't have to be City. 

Final thought, I'd have loved to have seen Aimee Palmer in this team. 

good assessment.

Re: Palmer, I've said before not replacing her with another sitting midfielder who will shield the defence, break up play and can hit an accurate pass is Smith's biggest failing as they knew Palmer was going before the end of last season. Although decent players in their own right none, of the midfielders she brought it can do that role.

[Sleepy1968]

5 hours ago, Engvall’s Splinter said:

Who plays in BS7?

The women do in the cup games. It's the post code of the training ground, sorry, HPC.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Sleepy1968

[View from the Dolman]

9 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

The women do in the cup games. It's the post code of the training ground, sorry, HPC.

The HPC is in BS8. 

BS7 covers Rovers and Glos CCC. 

[Sleepy1968]

9 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

The HPC is in BS8. 

BS7 covers Rovers and Glos CCC. 

Ha. I better stop explaining things I don't understand . Although that would probably limit my posts somewhat!

[Hamdon Mart]

13 hours ago, old_eastender said:

good assessment.

Re: Palmer, I've said before not replacing her with another sitting midfielder who will shield the defence, break up play and can hit an accurate pass is Smith's biggest failing as they knew Palmer was going before the end of last season. Although decent players in their own right none, of the midfielders she brought it can do that role.

Agree 100%. The value of a CDM like Palmer is that you don't need to play five at the back & this would release Morgan further forward for her pace and energy.

Think we are also missing a LB somewhere (or at least a capable one) as Napier is really a LM, Layzell is a LCB and Mustaki can play both roles but excels at neither. 

[shahanshahan]

Update on travel for the Everton fixture this Sunday

https://www.bristolcitysupporters.org/city-women-away-travel-update-everton-2023/

[shahanshahan]

Coach tickets & match tickets now on sale for Liverpool away. Away fans have their own stand

 

[shahanshahan]

Back in yellow on Sunday...

 

[phantom]

Have we used the away kit yet? 

[redsquirrel]

On 13/11/2023 at 12:29, Sleepy1968 said:

Ha. I better stop explaining things I don't understand . Although that would probably limit my posts somewhat!

that is brilliant   can i save that for future usage??

[shahanshahan]

15 hours ago, phantom said:

Have we used the away kit yet? 

Yep, at the Man City game

[shahanshahan]

Links to audio from Lauren Smith's press conference...

Biggest takeaway from what Lauren Smith has said is that Kaylan Marckese is injured and won't be available for this Sunday's game. Liv Clark will start

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/smiths-everton-press-conference/

Edited November 18, 2023 by shahanshahan

[old_eastender]

50 minutes ago, shahanshahan said:

Links to audio from Lauren Smith's press conference...

Biggest takeaway from what Lauren Smith has said is that Kaylan Marckese is injured and won't be available for this Sunday's game. Liv Clark will start

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/smiths-everton-press-conference/

Oh dear, that's a blow.  The 2nd goal for Villa was really poor keeping by Clark.

[Red Homer]

4 hours ago, shahanshahan said:

Yep, at the Man City game

And the sole win this season against West Ham

[shahanshahan]

1 hour ago, Red Homer said:

And the sole win this season against West Ham

Nope, they played in their (yellow) third kit for the West Ham game. The original question (below) was about the (black) away kit

22 hours ago, phantom said:

Have we used the away kit yet? 

 

[shahanshahan]

Former Bristol Academy (as it was then) player Sophie Ingle broke the appearance record for the WSL today, in Chelsea's 5-1 win against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge...

[Erithacus]

Yes, came to us from Chelsea after a start in Cardiff. Played here from 2014–2015, in 27 appearances before going to Liverpool. She has also notched up 120-odd appearances for Wales.

When you consider how few games the top women's teams play per season, that's some achievement.

[Red Homer]

50 minutes ago, shahanshahan said:

Nope, they played in their (yellow) third kit for the West Ham game. The original question (below) was about the (black) away kit

 

My mistake, teach me to read a bit slower!

[shahanshahan]

Former City goalkeeper Benedicte Haaland is back...

 

[shahanshahan]

Clark makes her WSL away debut this season. Napier returns. Furness missing from the squad

KO 1pm, live on FA Player

[old_eastender]

3 minutes ago, shahanshahan said:

Clark makes her WSL away debut this season. Napier returns. Furness missing from the squad

KO 1pm, live on FA Player

Furness missing is a big loss, as is having to rely on Liz Clark in goal. Shame as Everton possibly weakest team except WHU (and us!)

[Erithacus]

Looks like a 5-4-1 again, with the loss of Furness in the middle. I hope the team has some flexibility and scope for a change if needed. Harrison needs to be more involved and play more central in my eyes if we are to have any success. Another crucial game, might just be happy to take a point here.

[bcfc01]

City women currently 4th highest on 6,849.

Arsenal the outlier on 31,132.

Surprised at how low some of the bigger clubs attendances are;

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/womens-super-league/attendances

 

[Phileas Fogg]

Personally I don’t think there is as much interest in women’s football (yet) as the relative media attention it receives would suggest. 

The Bristol City attendance is very good though considering the competition.

[old_eastender]

31 minutes ago, Erithacus said:

Looks like a 5-4-1 again, with the loss of Furness in the middle. I hope the team has some flexibility and scope for a change if needed. Harrison needs to be more involved and play more central in my eyes if we are to have any success. Another crucial game, might just be happy to take a point here.

Happy? Ecstatic I'd think!

Already 1 down, poor defending and weak goalkeeping not a good combination.

[Full nelson]

Such a poor team. No confidence to attack or hold possession.

[bcfc01]

35 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Personally I don’t think there is as much interest in women’s football (yet) as the relative media attention it receives would suggest. 

The Bristol City attendance is very good though considering the competition.

Approaching Gas mens team levels of attendance..

[Lrrr]

Just now, bcfc01 said:

Approaching Gas mens team levels of attendance..

Waiting for claims that Teds only go along on the basis of trying to beat their attendances 

[bcfc01]

1 minute ago, Lrrr said:

Waiting for claims that Teds only go along on the basis of trying to beat their attendances 

Given that their average is 7,820 (which is good for them), I don't think the ladies need our help to eventually catch them up. Another few 12k attendances at AG should do it.

As an aside, their average is 13th in L1, just behind Carlisle and Leyton Orient.

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-one/attendances

[Full nelson]

That's better!! Much better when attacking. 

[old_eastender]

HT 1-1. A great strike by Amy Rodgers just before HT bringing an equaliser.

For the first 30 mins, it looked just a question of time before Everton went 2 up. Clark, whose saved but knocked the ball straight back to the Everton forward for their first, spilt 2 other crosses that could have resulted in goals. Our midfield without Furness looked non-existent, frequently caught in possession, weak in the challenge and almost every forward pass not finding a teammate.

We did have a decent spell in the last 10 mins or so, winning 5 corners which looked to offer us the best way back into it, before some determined play by Harrison set-up Rodgers to strike. Just before HT Clark actually managed to hold onto a cross too!

Everton look most likely, but who knows all to play for in the second half.

 

 

[shahanshahan]

 

[steveybadger]

57 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Personally I don’t think there is as much interest in women’s football (yet) as the relative media attention it receives would suggest. 

The Bristol City attendance is very good though considering the competition.

If there was media attention and attendances hadn’t grown in recent times then maybe there wasn’t interest to start with. But the increased Media focus and attention on Women’s football and subsequent rise in attendances suggest there always was.  

[redkev]

I believe Utd v city today at old Trafford had sold over 45,000 tickets as of Friday , unbelievable really on the other hand having family from Manchester and staying up there a fair bit there enthusiasm for football is so much more than us down here , even when working up there nearly every topic of conversation either starts with football or very quickly ends up there .

one quite funny thing is when they know I’m from Bristol they ask me who I support , my answer is there’s only one team in Bristol mate - there response is always city fan then are you

[old_eastender]

2-1 Everton, more woeful goalkeeping by Clarke, she is just so weak.

[Peter1450]

Looks like my old mums window cleaner operating the camera, probably best if he let it be unwatchable!

[old_eastender]

2-2 in the 83rd minute, Thestrup with a very good angled finish.

[bcfc01]

33 minutes ago, redkev said:

I believe Utd v city today at old Trafford had sold over 45,000 tickets as of Friday , unbelievable really on the other hand having family from Manchester and staying up there a fair bit there enthusiasm for football is so much more than us down here , even when working up there nearly every topic of conversation either starts with football or very quickly ends up there .

one quite funny thing is when they know I’m from Bristol they ask me who I support , my answer is there’s only one team in Bristol mate - there response is always city fan then are you

Arsenal have had over 54,000 this season (a record WSL attendance).

[Davefevs]

Who was it who ran through three brick walls to get the pass away?

[old_eastender]

FT 2-2. A much better display by our girls in the second half, weak goalkeeping gifted Everton their 2-1 lead but a a very good angled finish by Thestrup earned a perhaps deserved equaliser. Might have had the chance to win it at the death but Jones, who was pretty dismal throughout, over hit a simple pass that would have had Morgan (who had a good game) in on goal.

Still hope this season, looks like WHU & Everton will be the 2 teams in the relegation scrap with us. 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by old_eastender

[The Bard]

Watched the last 10 minutes. We were by far the better team and most likely to nick it.  When you consider how young and inexperienced City are, we just need to stay in touch with likes of Everton, Leicester and West Ham.  Definitely got a good chance to stay up.

[REDOXO]

Well done to the girls!

[shahanshahan]

 

[Erithacus]

Sounds like a gutsy performance, if not a high quality one. Given the state of the side without some regulars I am happy enough with that. Meanwhile, Villa are leading 2-1 at West Ham - another important game today.

[Jerseybean]

Decent point https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67394910

 

[Erithacus]

I think the attendances must be seen after the end of the season. We had 12,000 for Arsenal's visit and about the same has been sold for the forthcoming game against Man Utd. In between there are less away fans, and so the figures are somewhat skewed at the present. Certainly, the trend across the WSL (and some of the WC clubs) is for a growing fanbase. I still am curious as to the composition of WSL crowds: more family based, younger fans; but a growing number of men watching too, not just as fathers.

Departing Chelsea boss Emma Hayes was first to go on record saying it is about time the prices for these games went up in comparison. I take that to be a sign of the increasing presence and regard that the womem's game has now. Is that a good thing? TIme will tell if it is merely convergent evolution.