Bristol City Women head coach Steve Kirby has insisted that despite the disappointment, there’s no need to panic after the Robins’ 1-0 loss to promotion-rivals London City Lionesses.
The visitors started the stronger side, coming close to the opener after just 30 seconds as Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah nearly capitalised from a mistake at the back, but her shot was high and wide. However, opportunities were limited for both teams over the next half-hour, bar a corner from Kosovare Asllani that was headed over by Megan Campbell.
City’s first chance of the note came from a Lionesses’ mistake as Charlene Meyong attempted to get rid of the ball following a cross from Ffion Morgan, but her clearance was deflected by Jess Simpson and almost dipped underneath the crossbar.
Emily Syme then had a shot after Jamie-Lee Napier won the ball back high up the pitch, but her effort from a difficult angle was collected by Emily Orman in goal.
London City continued to look dangerous though, with Emma Mukandi’s shot looking to be problematic if not for a crucial block from Sille Struck before Asllani looked to have a decent opportunity at the far post, however, she couldn’t quite connect with her header to get it on target.
But with just moments remaining in the first half, City had their best chance of the game as Syme played through Morgan in the box, but her strike could only sting the palms of Orman.
Just moments into the second half, the Lionesses had the opportunity to take the lead through Asllani again following Mukandi’s cross from the left, but she put her effort wide.
The Robins created a great chance of their own down the other end, as Syme played a ball over the top to Lloyd-Smith, who skipped past her defender twice, before seeing her shot parried away by the goalkeeper. Lexi Lloyd-Smith continued to cause problems, as Orman attempted to clear the ball following a back pass, the young forward leapt into the challenge, took the hit and was unfortunate to only see the ball ricochet across goal.
However, City were nearly caught out at the other end. As Struck attempted to shield the ball near the byline Isobel Goodwin showed enough strength to win it back and find Mukandi, though her shot was blocked and later deflected behind. The visitors took the lead from the subsequent set-piece after a brief stoppage in play, Campbell drilling the ball into the bottom left corner following Asllani’s delivery.
Opportunities were limited for both teams in the final 30 minutes, though there were a couple of key moments. Meyong came close to doubling London City’s advantage after getting on the end of Fran Bentley’s parry, before being denied by a block from Harley Bennett. Then, the Robins had a real chance to split the points in the final minute of normal time after Syme saw her shot hit the post, but it wasn’t to be.
Speaking after the defeat, City boss Kirby admitted that despite the setback, he isn’t concerned about his side’s ability to achieve their ambitions this season.
“[We’re] obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game and frustrated a little bit with our own performance, we feel that we can be better than that,” he acknowledged.
“We weren’t quite our best today with a lot of our work so we’ll obviously look into the reasons as to why that is and obviously when you’re not like that and you leave the door slightly open, there’s always the chance that the opposition might nick one and obviously they did.
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“[But] as disappointed as we are today, there’ll be no panic, there’s going to be twists and turns in this league. We know we’re there or thereabouts and obviously we’ve got to pick up and bounce back next week. But in terms of the league, nothing was going to be won or lost today and we’ll make sure we pick back up and get back at it.”
The Robins will now prepare to take on league leaders Birmingham City next time out, another tough fixture, but Kirby believes that they are one of the best possible opponents to respond against.
“If I’m honest actually, there’s probably not a better game to come back to.” he said, “As I said before, we’ve done that before in the season, we were disappointed against Sunderland and came back and put a little run together, so I expect us to do the same, and like I said, Birmingham’s no better game than to do it in really.”