HOWAY THE LASSES

The road to Wembley continued this afternoon with the second round proper of the FA Cup taking place, the last round before clubs from the Championship enter, although with 6 postponements and an abandoned match only 21 of the scheduled 28 ties actually went ahead today.  The only place to start today is the Vestacare Stadium and our friends at Mancunian Unity. Yet more history for the little club that could, into the third round of the cup for the first time since they were founded, I couldn't be happier for their fans and everyone associated with the club. Unity came up against tier 6 Handsworth this afternoon. After the visitors got the match underway, the 10th minute of the match so the first possible penalty shout of the day for Unity, Olivia Shaw being brought down in the box but nothing given.  Still pushing for an opener, the Handsworth keeper couldn't keep hold of a Unity corner on 22 minutes, the ball fell to Celeste Gordon but she was unable to fin the back of the n...

Two weeks of FAWNL action to catch up on as I was away at the start of last week, blog to follow, and never quite caught up. The day job has kept me particularly busy recently but I'm hoping to get back on track with this blog as the winter break approaches.  Following the first round proper of the FA Cup on 3rd November, clubs returned to league action Sunday 10th November.  When we left league football before the cup weekend, Wolves has jumped ahead of Bridget Galloway's Nottingham Forest to go 2 points clear at the top of the Northern Premier Division although Forest had a game in hand.  Week 12 saw Forest travel to West Bromwich Albion and keep the pressure on league leaders Wolves with a 0-2 away win. Bridget was on the bench for this match and, apologies if I'm incorrect, I don't believe she got on the pitch. Forest opened the scoring early on with a 15th minute goal from Mel Johnson, her 9th of the season. The score stayed at 0-1 until the 86th minute when a fant...

I'm not trying to tempt fate here but if we come away from Ashton Gate with at least a point this afternoon our current unbeaten streak for away league games extends to 760 days. Due to the way the fixture list has worked out, with no league away match after today until a trip to Bramall Lane on 19th January 2025, a point or better today would see that streak extended to a minimum of 830 days. BristolCity have found life tough in the Championship since coming down from the WSL so passing the 800 day mark is entirely possible.  Following their previous relegation from the WSL at the end of the 2020/21 season, it took the Robins two attempts to get back up to the top flight. On current form I wouldn't say they are amongst the favourites to go up this season. Assuming we don't pull off a 3rd consecutive promotion I suspect we'd be highly favoured to make the jump next season so it may take Bristol a little longer to get back to the WSL, unless WPLL look to expand the top t...

  Whilst wor lasses took a huge step towards topping the Championship for the first time this season with a superb 0-2 away win at league leaders Birmingham yesterday, elsewhere the FA Cup got underway with 116 teams competing in the first round proper.  Can't really start anywhere else other than the Vestacare Stadium, Oldham where Tier 5's Mancunian Unity played host to Tier 4's Stockport County, Cheshire FA County Cup and Women's Super Cup reigning champions.  Great start to the match for Unity #10 Liv Shaw. Opened the scoring after 7 minutes, stretching to meet a low cross into the box, doubled her tally for the day on 16 minutes with a tap in making it 2-0 then won a penalty on 30 minutes which was converted by #5 Isa Melicio to give Unity a 3 goal lead. Not quite done for the first half, #4 Millie Jardine adding a 4th and 5th in the 45th and 45+3 minutes to send Unity into half time 5-0 ahead.  6th goal for Unity came 10 minutes into the second half courtesy of...