Bristol City Women and Charlotte Healy kicked off the new WSL 2 season with an away defeat to Birmingham CityCharlotte Healy and Bristol City had a tough start to the WSL 2 season(Image: Photo by Stuart Leggett/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Bristol City Women’s opening day defeat to Birmingham City “has to be a lesson,” Charlotte Healy has explained, with the Robins boss left “disappointed” by her side’s showing at St Andrew’s.

The Reds started the new WSL 2 campaign with a 5-1 loss against Amy Merrick’s side on Sunday afternoon as a Simone Magill brace alongside goals from Lily Crosthwaite, Christie Harrison-Murray, and Batcheba Louis ensured Maria Farrugia’s debut strike was little more than a consolation.

City found themselves 2-0 down after just 13 minutes as Magill twice managed to steer crosses from the left flank past Fran Bentley. Farrugia then halved the Robins’ deficit when she turned home from close range after a scramble in the Blues’ box, but Healy’s side were unable to take the other chances that fell their way before the break, and the home side scored three unanswered goals in the second half.

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“I thought it was a really open game, to be honest,” Healy told City’s media team post-match. “I thought it could have been 5-5 at half-time, a lot of chances, a lot of transition in the first half, but just really disappointed.

“Really, really poor performance from us today. We knew what we were going to get from Birmingham; we knew how fast they were going to start, and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. We had some big chances in the first half, and we didn’t take them. We’re disappointed with that because we were still in the game at half-time, but we had to take our chances and we had to defend better than we did.

“We knew that if we weren’t at our very best, and I said it before the game, if we weren’t at our very best today, we’d be hurt by Birmingham, and that’s exactly what happened.

“I thought we played some really good football, and we showed some of that at half-time, how we could hurt Birmingham, but we didn’t do that enough,” the head coach continued. “We didn’t get beyond the lines enough, everything was too short, and we just played into their press too much.

“We’d spoken about it before the game, about getting the ball into the frontline early, and we just didn’t do it. When we did, we hurt them; we saw that in the first half. Lucy [Newell] should be off, the fourth official said to me it’s a red card, it was his opinion it was a red card, and it’s not given, so we’re disappointed with that because again, right on half time if she’s off and she goes down to 10, it’s a different game.

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“But I’m not making excuses; that result is on us, and we got what we deserved today. We weren’t good enough, we weren’t clinical enough, and we defended so, so poorly. I just said to the girls that has to be a lesson. We have to learn really, really quickly because it can only go up from here, and we have to do that next week.”

Fortunately, City don’t have to wait too long for their next chance to register their first win of the new season. The Robins get their home campaign underway this coming weekend when they welcome Portsmouth to Ashton Gate on Sunday afternoon.

Like the Reds, Pompey started the season with a defeat as they were beaten 2-0 by Durham at Westleigh Park on Sunday. With a week to prepare for the visit of Jay Sadler’s side, Healy wants to see the mentality within her squad on show over the coming days.

“I want to see a reaction from the whole squad,” the Robins boss said. “We’ve got players in the squad that are competing for places, so I’m expecting a really competitive week in training, and I’m expecting people to stand up and be counted.

“We just spoke about mentality in there; we can’t shrink now. We shrank too much in that game, and I want us to be big and bold and stand up for ourselves.

“We have to do that this week if we want to get a positive result next week.”

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