Blue Moon - The Subway Cup Draw

The draw for the 2025/26 Subway Cup group stage took place this past Thursday with former Everton, Manchester City and England winger Toni Duggan picking the team's out the hat. Newcastle United Women were drawn in Group A alongside Duggan's previous teams, both WSL 1, and newcomers to WSL 2 Nottingham Forest. 

The complete* group stage:
Group A - Everton, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest
Group B - Sheffield United, Sunderland, Durham, Liverpool.
Group C - Brighton & Hove Albion, Charlton Athletic, Portsmouth, Southampton, West Ham United.
Group D - Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Leicester City, London City Lionesses
Group E - Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Bristol City, Tottenham Hotspur

*Manchester United will join either Group A or Group B if they fail to qualify for the Champions League. 

Everton

With Everton (men) moving from the famous old ground to the Hill Dickinson Stadium from the start of this coming seaso, Goodison Park is now officially the home ground of Everton Women. Whilst it's becoming more common for WSL teams to play home matches at the "main" (men's) ground, Arsenal playing the majority of their matches at the Emirates being the prime example, Everton will be the first WSL team to play all their home matches at a Premier League ground without sharing that ground with a corresponding men's team giving them the distinction of playing in the largest dedicated women's football stadium in the UK.

If the fixtures see Newcastle United Women travelling to Merseyside for the match, fans get the opportunity to visit one of the UK's oldest football stadiums. Opened in 1892 the first match saw the hosts run out 4-2 winners in an exhibition game against Botlon Wanderers. 1931 saw the first dugouts in England installed in Goodison Park, in 1958 Everton installed the first undersoil heating system in England at the ground and in 1971 they were the first English club to install a scoreboard at their ground. 

In the 8 seasons since the restructuring of the top two divisions, that initial 2017/18 season is the only time Everton have progressed beyond the group stage, finishing second behind Manchester City and ahead of Birmingham City, Doncaster Rovers Belles and Oxford United. Many familiar faces in that season's cup - future Lionesses penalty shoot out hero Chloe Kelly opened Everton's scoring 6 minutes into their first group match against Doncaster and scored a hat trick in the group match against Oxford United. After scoring an 112th minute equaliser to take the quarter final against Reading to a penalty shoot out Kelly missed her spot kick and Everton exited the tournament. A 1-0 win over Liverpool in their final group match meant Sunderland topped their group, their winner coming from future Newcastle United Women striker Bridget Galloway. Sunderland would also exit at the quarter final stage losing 3-1 to eventual winners Arsenal. The opening goals for both sides being scored by Jordan Nobbs and Galloway. Nobbs on the scoresheet again the the semi-final, scoring the 3rd in a 2-3 win against Reading. Future Manchester City forward Viv Miedema scored the only goal in the final asArsenal beat City 1-0. 

Three of the Everton squad featured at this summer's Euros. Kelly Gago who got half an hour as a sub in France's 4-1 win over Wales, Hayley Ladd who played the entirety of Wales' major tournament debut against the Netherlands and the last 25 minutes of their match with England and Danish midfielder Karen Holmgaard who featured in all 3 matches. 

Brian Sorensen's team won a penalty shoot-out 0-3 on a memorable night at Kingston Park in the same competition last season. Demi Stokes with her first NUW goal in a 1-1 draw at 90 minutes. Could Goodison Park see another first, NUW's first win against a WSL 1 team? I'm optimistic. 

Manchester City

Arguably the hardest test of the group stage for wor lasses, City's 4 Conti Cup / Subway Cup wins is only outdone by Arsenal's 7 wins. 

Following their defeat to Arsenal in the 2017/18 final, City went one better in 2018/19 beating Arsenal 4-2 on penalties after a goalless 90 minutes plus extra time. The shoot out saw current Lionesses captain Leah Williamson miss her penalty for Arsenal. fFormer England captain Steph Houghton and current England penalty taker Georgia Stanway were both on target for City, Lauren Hemp also missed. Chloe Kelly appearing once again, Kelly and Hemp scoring City's two in 2-4 quarter final loss to Chelsea in 20/21. A comfortable 2-1 win for Chelsea in last season's final. 

Last seasom was a bit rocky by City's standards. After failing to break in to the first team for much of the first half of the season Chloe Kelly managed to force a loan move to Arsenal in the January transfer window, a move that was made permanent this summer. Manager Gareth Taylor who had been in charge since 2020 followed Kelly out of the club shortly after the transfer window and was replaced by his predecessor Nick Cushing. After failing to secure Champions League qualification for only the second time since 2016/17 Cushing departed City this summer to be replaced by Swedish coach Andrée Jeglertz who was previously with the Denmark national team, an appointed that's received mixed views from the Citizens.

Might last season's loanee Poppy Pritchard feature in the match, either for City or back on loan with NUW? City aren't short of international experience - captain Alex Greenwood, Laura Coombs, Lauren Hemp, Jess Park, Laura Blindkilde Brown, Gracie Prior and Khiara Keating with the Lionesses, Vivianne Miedema and Kerstin Casparij with the Netherlands and Khadija "Bunny" Shaw with Jamaica. 

Home or away, personally. this is the match I'm most looking forward to. Oasis link aside, "Citeh" were my introduction to women's club football via Steph Houghton, Izzy Christiansen and Georgia Stanway playing for England. I might have a soft spot for City but I will 100% be supporting NUW in this fixture. Saying that, I'm less optimistic of a win than I am against Everton. 

Nottingham Forest

This season is Forest's debut in this competition so no history to report on but with a behind closed doors pre-season friendly between the sides and a match at the City Ground on the opening weekend of the season NUW and Forest will be quite familiar with each other by the time the cup fixtures come round. 

The 2023/24 season saw three meetings between the two clubs. A 3-0 behind closed doors win for wor lasses on route to the FA WNL Cup Final. This match was originally scheduled to be played at NUW's new home ground Gateshead International Stadium. Excessive rain that Sunday lead to a waterlogged pitch which forced a move to a behind closed doors fixture at the lasses' now former training ground Bullocksteads. 19th November 2023 saw history made with the first"Causy Coach" and a narrow 0-1 away win at the City Ground via Kacie Elson and more history in the home league fixture, "Mackem Slayer" Beth Lumsden making her NUW debut in a 1-2 loss, the lasses' only home loss of the season. 

Last season, a 1-0 loss to NUW in the FA Cup was Forest's only loss on route to the Northern Premier Division title and the FA WNL Cup. 18 clean sheets in all competitions for keeper Emily Batty last season and 4 clean sheets in 4 appearances for back up keeper Georgie Ferguson, both keepers have signed one year extensions keeping them at Forest for the upcoming season. 

Carly Davies' side have had an outstanding transfer window so far. Scottish international Amy Rodgers brings five season's of WSL 1 experience to Trentside, the midfielder having played for four seasons with Liverpool and two seasons with Bristol City, the second being in WSL 2.  Republic of Ireland international defender Chloe Mustaki has joined on a 3 year deal from Bristol City. Mustaki featured alongside NUW's Emily Murphy in ROI's friendlies against USA this summer. Another Scottish international, defender Kirsty Smith, joins from WSL 1's West Ham United. Smith has over 60 Scotland caps and was part of the Manchester United team to won the Championship / WSL 2 in 2017/18. Finally, what could prove to be a season defining signing, Aimee Claypole on a two year deal from Chelsea. Lasses fans will be well aware of the headaches she caused our defence / midfield during her loan spell with Durham last season. 

On the back of a memorable promotion season, Davies has put a formidable side together. Wether this is at GIS or the City Ground could make a big difference, they may be new to the competition but I certainly don't expect an easy match. 

View From the South Stand*

*Or should that be the Tyne & Wear South Stand now? Will have to give that one some thought. Slightly mixed views between us on this, Matt L suggests aiming for best placed runner up is realistic but how strong a team we put out could be influenced by league position at the time of the cup games. Ever optimistic Causy thinks we are winning it all. Personally, I'm somewhere between the two. Mainly, I'd like to see us beat a WSL 1 side. A quarter final appearance could be, if nothing else, a memorable away day, hi Chelsea. 

Fixtures to be confirmed but ties are set for 24//25 September (midweek), 18/19 October and 22/23 November.