Bristol City Women bounce back from Sunderland defeat with 'pleasing' win over Newcastle United

Bristol City Women head coach Steve Kirby stated that he was pleased that his side were able to return to winning ways with their 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at Ashton Gate.

Both sides had chances in the first half but it was City who opened the scoring as 18-year-old wing-back Mari Ward converted on the volley with just moments remaining of the first half.

The Robins came out from the break with the same intensity and quickly doubled their lead as Lexi Lloyd-Smith scored her fifth goal of the season just two minutes into the second half, finishing into an empty net.

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Defender Sille Struck was shown red after picking up two yellow cards within four minutes, but City stood firm to secure victory at Ashton Gate.

The three points marked the Robins’ third consecutive home win as they moved up to fifth in the Women’s Championship table, five points off Birmingham City in top spot with a game in hand.

“I'm really happy with the result,” City boss Kirby remarked. “And I'm really happy that we showed a way of winning in that style and in that manner as well.

“It’s really pleasing to see that we've taken the lessons from previous games. We've done so well in many other games at the start of first halves and the start of second halves, so it was nice to see that back as part of our identity.

“It’s what we want to do and what we want to be, so it was really important to get back to that after last week.

“We had to work really, really hard for the result,” he added.

“We knew that they would always carry a threat. We said as a group just a moment ago that we know that sometimes to get success, you have to suffer first, and we had to dig in, we had to sacrifice a little bit of attacking play and make sure we took care of those threats. But we did that so well in the end and I was so pleased with it.”

Former City striker Shania Hayles created the first real chance of the game as she capitalised on a blocked clearance and cut to the byline before picking out Lois Joel on the edge of the area, though her effort was fired wide.

The Robins’ first real opportunity came through Chloe Mustaki, who headed wide from Jesse Woolley’s cross following a short corner routine, while Newcastle found themselves in a potentially dangerous position not long after, Jasmine McQuade playing through Beth Lumsden, though her effort from the left of Fran Bentley’s goal went wide of the far post.

Moments later, McQuade won Newcastle a free-kick and Lumsden’s subsequent effort from 30-yards out looked as though it may creep in at the far-post, but it drifted just wide.

The Robins were forced into a substitution on the half-hour mark as Jesse Woolley was unable to continue following an injury, and she was replaced by Brighton loanee Libby Bance.

The Magpies were almost gifted the opener after Bentley’s attempted clearance was blocked by Hayles, but the City goalkeeper was able to collect on the rebound, before Jamie Lee-Napier had an effort on the left-hand side of the penalty area, but she couldn’t direct her shot goalwards.

But in the final moments of injury time, Mari Ward scored the opener for the Robins – her second goal in two games.

Lloyd-Smith did well to get past her defender and play through Ward down the right. She found Syme, whose cross was cleared as far as Mustaki, but her deep delivery wasn’t dealt with by the Newcastle defence and was picked up by Syme, who this time found Ward on the volley to poke home.

Speaking on her goal, 18-year-old Ward said: “I'm really happy [to have scored twice in a week] I feel like it's been coming for a little while now so to have to it finally go into the back of the net, it's a good feeling.

“Symo [Emily Syme] was there, and I just needed to get across the front and get something on it, so yeah happy when it went in.”

The Robins continued their momentum into the second half, as Napier found space down the left flank before her ball into the box was parried away by Moan, but only as far as Lloyd-Smith, who finished into an empty net.

There wasn’t too much in the way of chances for either side for the remainder of the second half, the home team doing well to defend their lead.

However, the Robins’ resilience was tested late on, as Sille Struck was shown a controversial second yellow card with nine minutes remaining, but City held on to pick up another home win.

And as they climb up the table, head coach Kirby remains focused on the club’s ambitions of returning to the top flight.

“We have to stay as close as we can for as long as we can until we can get in front,” he admitted, “For us, it's just in case of picking up three points, picking up three points and just keeping trying to do that.

“If we can get in front and we can be the ones that everybody's chasing, then great, but if not, we need to stay as close as we can and make sure that we're ready to strike when we get an opportunity.”

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