Bristol City Women’s manager Steve Kirby is adamant that his side are still fully focused on earning promotion back to the Women’s Super League despite dropping points to Southampton.
The Robins were unable to take advantage of a dominant display as they drew 0-0 with the Saints at Ashton Gate on Sunday, but the City boss made it clear that the title race will not be decided by this one result.
“The goal is no different,” he declared after the game, “We’re still close enough to affect things. I still think other teams won’t be flawless but if they are between now and then, they deserve [to win] it. But I don’t think that will be the case.
“Our job now will be to stay as close as possible and when others drop points, like we have today, to make sure that we’re there to get back close to them.
“I’m excited by the rest of the season, nothing’s won or lost today,” he added, “We’ll still be there, we’ll still be chasing, we’ll still be fighting for the top spot and trying to win the league and get promoted.”
The Robins started the game brilliantly, creating a number of early chances. The first of which came in the opening five minutes as Emily Syme drilled a dangerous ball across the box towards Amalie Thestrup, but the City striker was unable to get onto the end of it.
A few minutes later, Lexi Lloyd-Smith delivered a cross towards Jamie-Lee Napier at the far post. However, the City captain’s shot from a difficult angle was straight at Fran Stenson in the Southampton net. Napier came close again soon after, having cut in from the left and leaving her defender for dead, she took on a shot from range that was parried by Stenson, though no one was able to capitalise on the rebound.
The wing-back then set up the best opportunity of the half. Her sliced effort found the head of Syme at the far post, though the Southampton ‘keeper pulled off a crucial save on the line.
The game began to settle slightly around the thirty-minute mark, but with less than ten minutes remaining in the first half, Lloyd-Smith whipped in another cross from the right flank that wasn’t dealt with by the Southampton defence. It subsequently fell to Syme, whose effort hit the target, but was saved by the Stenson at point-blank range.
Syme again created another promising opportunity. Having driven into space, she took on a shot from twenty-two yards out forcing the Saints’ stopper into a fingertip save.
Ultimately, it was the visitors who had the final chance of the half as Vivienne Lia broke through the middle of the pitch and had a shot from distance that forced Fran Bentley into a diving save, as she tipped it around the post.
Speaking on the opening 45 minutes, Kirby stated: “First half I thought was great. I was really happy at half-time, I was really pleased not only with our attacking play but our attacking organisation and how we set up to defend against their transition. We knew that that was a key part of their game.”
Opportunities for both sides were somewhat limited at the start of the second period and it wasn’t until near the hour mark that anything meaningful was created. It was Syme again who attempted another powerful long-range effort to test the Southampton goalkeeper, but she was able to get a hand to it to put it out for a corner.
Lloyd-Smith’s subsequent set-piece nearly saw the ball creep in at the near post only for Stenson to again come to the visitors’ rescue.
The 61st minute saw a double substitution for City with Mari Ward making her return from injury and replacing Ella Powell, while Malaika Meena took the place of Libby Bance for her debut after joining the club from Wake Forest University on deadline day.
From then on, City began to pile on the pressure again. Lloyd-Smith came incredibly close after capitalising on a loose ball, but she put her shot narrowly wide. A few moments later she set up Syme and her effort deflected off Tara Bourne and nearly looped in over Stenson but for another crucial intervention to put it over the bar.
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In the final minutes of normal time, new signing Meena won the ball inside the Southampton half and played in Lloyd-Smith, but her shot from just outside the box flew narrowly over the bar.
With nine minutes of added time, the Robins continued to look dangerous, and in the dying moments, the best chance of the game fell to Napier, when Tianna Teisar’s cross across goal found her unmarked at the far post, however, she was unable to poke it home.
Despite the positive performance, the draw sees City drop to fifth in the Women’s Championship table, five points off of table-toppers Birmingham City who sit in the top spot with a game in hand and Kirby admitted that his players were frustrated with the outcome.
“In the huddle afterwards they [the players] are obviously really gutted,” he confessed, “They will obviously look at the result first and foremost like we all will, but I’ll have a different perspective on it in terms of the good things from our performance.
“I’m sure when they look back at it, they’ll see how well they’ve played, but they’re really disappointed and gutted at the minute because it’s obviously two points dropped.”