Bristol City Women’s boss Steve Kirby believes it will be “huge” if they can turn Ashton Gate into a fortress as they look to make an instant return to the Women’s Super League.
City are without a win on home soil since April 2023 when they defeated Charlton Athletic 4-0 on their way to securing the Women’s Championship title. A winless season followed, however, with the Robins failing to pick up maximum points at BS3 as they finished bottom of the WSL on just six points.
It’s a bleak record at Ashton Gate, which has continued into the new campaign drawing 0-0 to Birmingham City in their second game of the 2024-25 season.
New boss Kirby, who will manage his first game on home soil since his arrival from Leicester City in September, is adamant his side must make Ashton Gate a place to be feared.
Speaking ahead of City’s Women’s Championship fixture against Blackburn Rovers this Sunday, he said, “That’s what we’ll be aiming to do. It’s really important because we want to pick up wins home and away so if we achieve what I’d like us to achieve in my tenure, we’re going to have to be good at winning home and away.
“It’ll definitely be sweeter to do it at home after so long and in my first home game that will be perfect. I’m really looking forward to it. Before I came in, it was one of the huge pulls to the role and obviously working with the team, working at the training ground. It was nice that we were going to have our own set up and such a good setup in Ashton Gate that we can play from.
“I remember last season coming down for the first game of the season when I was at Leicester and seeing the amount of fans and fan backing. I remember at that point being quite envious of that so I’m really looking forward to experiencing that from the new position and them getting behind us and backing us.
“It can be huge for us. Keeping us pushing, getting tired in games or hearing them when we might not be getting a little bit of success. I said last week sometimes we have to suffer before we get some success and if the fans are there helping us and encouraging us and through that period of time in the game, then that can often get us over the line.
“From their perspective they can be a huge help and also from an environment perspective the pitch is fantastic, it works with how we want to play football and what we want to do so that will help us no end in terms of having that facility to play our games from.”
City sit seventh in the standings on five points after their opening five games of the campaign but registered their first win under Kirby last-time out at Sheffield United – winning 4-2.
The return to action this weekend against ninth-placed Blackburn and it’s a team the new Robins boss has described a “threat”.
He added: “They’re a threat. I know the league position doesn’t say that but they’ve got good qualities. We’ve analysed them well like we do with everybody and we will need to make sure that we do things to the top of our game. They’ve got threats, they’re good, they’re resilient in terms of their defending so it’s going to be no easy game that’s for sure.”