Very tight game yesterday. Quite even but thought we were slightly the better side. Missed a golden opportunity with missed penalty and then of course taking the lead in 89th. Over a 1,000 there which I think is the first time for the women. Very tight at the top and going to be an interesting season.
Next home league game isn't until January 21st, over 2 months! The authorities need to sort this out. How is a club supposed to build interest like this?
Attendance now announced as 1001. I think the women's game needs some focus on increasing crowds and I agree the long gaps between home games are massively unhelpful, but we're making progress.
If we get an away draw in the cup, Wednesday night's game against Birmingham at the Oakwood will be the last home game this side of Christmas. Kickoff 7pm.
Attendance now announced as 1001. I think the women's game needs some focus on increasing crowds and I agree the long gaps between home games are massively unhelpful, but we're making progress.
If we get an away draw in the cup, Wednesday night's game against Birmingham at the Oakwood will be the last home game this side of Christmas. Kickoff 7pm.
22 Nov: Birmingham City, HOME, 7pm Wednesday. At The Oakwood. £6 adult, £2 over-65 & under-21, £1 under-18, in advance. £2 extra on the day. Tickets from here. 26 Nov: week off. 3 Dec: International break. England play Netherlands at Wembley Fri 1/12 and Scotland at Hampden Tues 5/12. 10 Dec: FA Cup. Draw scheduled for Mon 27 November. 17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here. Not on sale yet.
Went to the game last night - first time I've seen our women's team play.
Thought it was mostly a pretty good performance, and Birmingham only really had one dangerous cross into the box and one shot that went wide near the end. Our goal was a fantastic move, starting with some one-touch passing in our own half to play it out, then the ball played in down the right, and a low cross finished into the roof of the net by McGowan.
It got a bit sloppy in the second half as we created problems for ourselves once or twice, but we rode that spell out and could have had a second from a good driving run by Green, whose shot was tipped over by their keeper.
You get the impression that we are quite close. Maybe as little as one player with the right attributes though I can't tell you who that player is.
I would suggest a quality centre back and a centre forward who scores goals with headers.
Birmingham rested Gemma Lawley. 21 years old and I saw her her play an excellent game against London City Lionesses recently. She even scored the winning goal and would have made a big difference.
Financial boost at the cost of voting rights. However being part of the top two tiers could be an important strategic play for the owners (and supporters) of the club.
FA Cup draw today. 40 clubs in it, the 12 Championship clubs and 28 survivors of the previous rounds, who are mostly from tiers 3 and 4. It's regionalised for this round, but only into two groups so we could draw anyone from the southern half of the country. Win this one and the last 32 is national and the WSL clubs join.
One potential tie that would be fun is that Millwall Lionesses, the team they set up when London City Lionesses broke away from them, have reached this stage so have a chance of drawing Lionesses. Or us. They're tier 5 so it would probably be a cricket score if it did happen.
The FA cup game will be away at Bournemouth. They're tier 4 but running away with their division, so should be easily winnable but reasonably challenging. Likely to be played at their actual stadium, I suspect, but they usually use Ringwood Town FC as their equivalent of the Oakwood.
Update: the initial announcement on Bournemouth's website says it will be at Ringwood Town, kickoff time to be confirmed. I've no idea what the admission cost will be as they normally let people in free for their league games.
Have they drawn the next round of the continental cup
It's a group format. We play Brighton at the Oakwood on 24 January. We need to beat them by 3 clear goals and we'd also need West Ham not to beat Birmingham more comfortably than that. Realistically Brighton are qualifying from our group and that will be our last game in the competition.
FA Cup draw today. 40 clubs in it, the 12 Championship clubs and 28 survivors of the previous rounds, who are mostly from tiers 3 and 4. It's regionalised for this round, but only into two groups so we could draw anyone from the southern half of the country. Win this one and the last 32 is national and the WSL clubs join.
One potential tie that would be fun is that Millwall Lionesses, the team they set up when London City Lionesses broke away from them, have reached this stage so have a chance of drawing Lionesses. Or us. They're tier 5 so it would probably be a cricket score if it did happen.
Made me laugh to see a bloke in a Millwall top at the Sunderland match last weekend - I wonder if he realised the Lionesses were also playing that afternoon...
I went to Billericay Town v Dulwich Hamlet in the second round yesterday - third tier versus fifth tier. It was very close - in the end Billericay's defence kept them in it and they won 2-1 thanks to a goal in added time. Hamlet beat London Bees (Barnet), also of the third tier, 2-0 in the first round in front of 600 at Champion Hill a few weeks ago.
The lack of movement in the women's pyramid seems to be an issue - only one team goes up from Hamlet's league, which feeds into a bigger regional league, so there a few quite handy sides stuck in that fifth tier.
3 Dec: International break. England play Netherlands at Wembley Fri 1/12 and Scotland at Hampden Tues 5/12. 10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 2pm. At Ringwood Town FC. Free admission. 17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here. 24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break 14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
Ringwood Town is a pretty basic setup, one of those grounds where there's a small covered area of seating but most people just lean on the rail along the side of the pitch. There's much less cover than at the Oakwood so check the weather forecast before setting off.
Sheffield United are opening most of one stand for the game on the 17th. Plenty of tickets still available, but it looks like they're selling fairly briskly so don't leave it too long to buy if you're going.
Correction: Bournemouth have responded to demand from their fans and the FA Cup game will now be at the Vitality Stadium. That does mean it won't be free admission. Kickoff will now be 1pm not 2pm. Tickets go on sale at 10 am Friday. In case it's relevant for anyone, under-14s need to be accompanied by an adult.
3 Dec: International break. England play Netherlands at Wembley Fri 1/12 and Scotland at Hampden Tues 5/12. 10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 1pm. At the Vitality Stadium. £7 adult, £5 concessions. Tickets from here. 17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here. 24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break 14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
Looks like there's an 8.53 train from Waterloo that gets to Bournemouth in time. Although there's a link to their website below, they only seem to offer tickets by post with no option to collect at the ground, so it's probably a better idea to buy on the day. Remember it's a 1pm kickoff and if it's a draw it's extra time and penalties, not a replay.
Still plenty of tickets available for the Sheffield game.
10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 1pm. At the Vitality Stadium. £7 adult, £5 concessions. Tickets from here. 17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here. 24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break 14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
Very much a game of two halves, that. The difference in quality was evident throughout - Bournemouth are part-time and play in tier 4 and it showed even in the first half when their defence was very successful. I think we only had one shot on target in the whole first half but still there wasn't much doubt that we'd eventually wear them down. Then we came out with different tactics in the second half and cut them to pieces repeatedly. Comfortable for us, but I suspect Bournemouth will be quite pleased with how long they kept it goalless and to me they looked more like a tier 3 club than tier 4.
They don't seem to have said what the crowd was. The main stand seemed to be mostly full so I assume 2-3 thousand? Pretty impressive, whatever it was.
The draw for the next round is tomorrow morning. It will apparently be streamed on the FA's instagram channel, whatever one of them is. From now on it's a national draw and the WSL teams join, so we could be away at a tier 4 club in the north, or home to Chelsea, or anything in between.
Comments
If we get an away draw in the cup, Wednesday night's game against Birmingham at the Oakwood will be the last home game this side of Christmas. Kickoff 7pm.
26 Nov: week off.
3 Dec: International break. England play Netherlands at Wembley Fri 1/12 and Scotland at Hampden Tues 5/12.
10 Dec: FA Cup. Draw scheduled for Mon 27 November.
17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here. Not on sale yet.
Thought it was mostly a pretty good performance, and Birmingham only really had one dangerous cross into the box and one shot that went wide near the end. Our goal was a fantastic move, starting with some one-touch passing in our own half to play it out, then the ball played in down the right, and a low cross finished into the roof of the net by McGowan.
It got a bit sloppy in the second half as we created problems for ourselves once or twice, but we rode that spell out and could have had a second from a good driving run by Green, whose shot was tipped over by their keeper.
Birmingham rested Gemma Lawley. 21 years old and I saw her her play an excellent game against London City Lionesses recently. She even scored the winning goal and would have made a big difference.
Potentially, big financial boost for the women's team.
One potential tie that would be fun is that Millwall Lionesses, the team they set up when London City Lionesses broke away from them, have reached this stage so have a chance of drawing Lionesses. Or us. They're tier 5 so it would probably be a cricket score if it did happen.
Update: the initial announcement on Bournemouth's website says it will be at Ringwood Town, kickoff time to be confirmed. I've no idea what the admission cost will be as they normally let people in free for their league games.
I went to Billericay Town v Dulwich Hamlet in the second round yesterday - third tier versus fifth tier. It was very close - in the end Billericay's defence kept them in it and they won 2-1 thanks to a goal in added time. Hamlet beat London Bees (Barnet), also of the third tier, 2-0 in the first round in front of 600 at Champion Hill a few weeks ago.
The lack of movement in the women's pyramid seems to be an issue - only one team goes up from Hamlet's league, which feeds into a bigger regional league, so there a few quite handy sides stuck in that fifth tier.
10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 2pm. At Ringwood Town FC. Free admission.
17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here.
24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break
14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
Ringwood Town is a pretty basic setup, one of those grounds where there's a small covered area of seating but most people just lean on the rail along the side of the pitch. There's much less cover than at the Oakwood so check the weather forecast before setting off.
Sheffield United are opening most of one stand for the game on the 17th. Plenty of tickets still available, but it looks like they're selling fairly briskly so don't leave it too long to buy if you're going.
3 Dec: International break. England play Netherlands at Wembley Fri 1/12 and Scotland at Hampden Tues 5/12.
10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 1pm. At the Vitality Stadium. £7 adult, £5 concessions. Tickets from here.
17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here.
24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break
14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
No direct trains will be operating. Looks like a 40 minute bus/coach ride from Winchester will be involved.
Still plenty of tickets available for the Sheffield game.
10 Dec: AFC Bournemouth, away (FA Cup). 1pm. At the Vitality Stadium. £7 adult, £5 concessions. Tickets from here.
17 Dec: Sheffield United, away. 2pm. At Bramhall Lane. £10 adult, £5 concessions.Tickets from here.
24 Dec, 31 Dec, 7 Jan: winter break
14 Jan: FA Cup 4th round, if successful in round 3.
well done
They don't seem to have said what the crowd was. The main stand seemed to be mostly full so I assume 2-3 thousand? Pretty impressive, whatever it was.
The draw for the next round is tomorrow morning. It will apparently be streamed on the FA's instagram channel, whatever one of them is. From now on it's a national draw and the WSL teams join, so we could be away at a tier 4 club in the north, or home to Chelsea, or anything in between.
Here are the fourth round FA Cup ties in full, they will all be played on 14 January: