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Charlotte Healy and Bristol City had a tough start to the WSL 2 season(Image: Photo by Stuart Leggett\/MI News\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\nBristol 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)<\/p>\n
Bristol City Women\u2019s opening day defeat to Birmingham City \u201chas to be a lesson,\u201d Charlotte Healy has explained, with the Robins boss left \u201cdisappointed\u201d by her side\u2019s showing at St Andrew\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The Reds started the new WSL 2 campaign with a 5-1 loss against Amy Merrick\u2019s side on Sunday afternoon as a Simone Magill brace alongside goals from Lily Crosthwaite, Christie Harrison-Murray, and Batcheba Louis ensured Maria Farrugia\u2019s debut strike was little more than a consolation.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Tom Rawcliffe interview part one: Transfer window, Bristol City contracts and Gerhard Struber<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City’s strongest line-up after Neto Borges’ arrival and summer transfer deadline day<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a really open game, to be honest,\u201d Healy told City\u2019s media team<\/a> post-match. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n \u201cReally, 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\u2019t take them. We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew that if we weren\u2019t at our very best, and I said it before the game, if we weren\u2019t at our very best today, we\u2019d be hurt by Birmingham, and that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought we played some really good football, and we showed some of that at half-time, how we could hurt Birmingham, but we didn\u2019t do that enough,\u201d the head coach continued. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get beyond the lines enough, everything was too short, and we just played into their press too much.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d spoken about it before the game, about getting the ball into the frontline early, and we just didn\u2019t 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\u2019s a red card, it was his opinion it was a red card, and it\u2019s not given, so we\u2019re disappointed with that because again, right on half time if she\u2019s off and she goes down to 10, it\u2019s a different game.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m not making excuses; that result is on us, and we got what we deserved today. We weren\u2019t good enough, we weren\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to see a reaction from the whole squad,\u201d the Robins boss said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got players in the squad that are competing for places, so I\u2019m expecting a really competitive week in training, and I\u2019m expecting people to stand up and be counted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just spoke about mentality in there; we can\u2019t shrink now. We shrank too much in that game, and I want us to be big and bold and stand up for ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to do that this week if we want to get a positive result next week.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘He’d tackle his grandmother’ – Ian Holloway shares verdict on Swindon’s Bristol City loan duo<\/a>READ MORE: Ex-Bristol City midfielder reportedly agrees to join Saudi Pro League side after Burnley exit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City Women and Charlotte Healy kicked off the new WSL 2 season with an away defeat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,2686,45759,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-407507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-bristol-city-women","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115168071134032806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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