{"id":939202,"date":"2026-05-05T11:26:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/939202\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:26:49","slug":"charlotte-healy-eager-to-move-the-needle-again-as-bristol-city-women-hit-targets-on-final-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/939202\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Healy eager to ‘move the needle again’ as Bristol City Women hit targets on final day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol City Women finished Charlotte Healy’s first season in charge at Ashton Gate with a win away to Sheffield United<\/p>\n

11:52, 05 May 2026Updated 11:54, 05 May 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bristol City boss Charlotte Healy speaks to her Robins squad(Image: Photo by George Wood – WSL\/WSL Football via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Charlotte Healy insists that Bristol City Women must “move the needle again” next season, after the Robins finished their campaign with an away win over Sheffield United.<\/p>\n

The Reds ended Healy’s first term in charge at Ashton Gate on a positive note as they beat United 4-0 at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon. An early Rio Hardy strike and a Lexi Lloyd-Smith hat-trick proved to be enough for City to claim all three points in the Steel City.<\/p>\n

Hardy gave City the lead when she fired a left-footed shot into the top left corner from the edge of the box after just 10 minutes, but missed the chance to extend the Robins’ advantage when she missed a penalty on the half-hour mark.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘I will miss you all’ – Bristol City favourite pens message after end of loan spell with Robins<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City moments missed, Roy Hodgson’s message and Delano Burgzorg’s good day in Stoke win<\/a><\/p>\n

Fortunately, Lloyd-Smith’s first of the afternoon, a right-footed finish from a Katie Robinson cut-back before the break, and two further goals from the 23-year-old in second-half stoppage time, ensured the saved penalty mattered little come full-time. After the final whistle, Healy was quick to praise her players for hitting their final-day targets.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] really, really proud of the girls; really proud of the performance,” the head coach told City’s media team at Bramall Lane<\/a>. “I thought Sheffield United came out of the blocks really fast, to be honest. [They] tried to go really direct in behind us, but I thought we got control pretty early, and I thought we played some really good football today.<\/p>\n

“We created an awful lot of chances, so really pleased that we got a couple of late ones because I felt that we created too much for it to just be a 2-0 game and look, we had things that we wanted to get out of the game today. We wanted to make sure we outscored Birmingham, and we finished [as the] top goalscorers. Set plays were important in terms of the metrics we’ve measured against this year. We wanted a golden boot winner, and we wanted to finish fourth.<\/p>\n

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“We’ve done all that today, so I’m really proud of the girls. It was a really professional performance, I thought and a lot to be proud of for everyone.”<\/p>\n

With their win over the Blades on Saturday, the Robins finish their second season back in the second tier of English football fourth in the league. With all 22 matches played, the Reds’ final margin to the sole play-off place sits at five points.<\/p>\n

Before a ball had been kicked this term, Healy and her players had, naturally, suggested that promotion back to the WSL was their target for the season. While that goal hasn’t yet been realised, there is plenty of optimism in and around BS3 after a busy year, off and on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Now, having set the foundations under the ownership of Mercury13, the City head coach is keen to go a step further next time around.<\/p>\n

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Asked for her final message to supporters, Healy replied, “Thank you very much. They’ve supported us a huge amount, and we want to make sure we encapsulate all the good we’ve done this year. We’ve been through so much growth, we’ve made real progress and real strides, but we have to move the needle again next year.<\/p>\n

“We need more, we need bigger, we need better, and that’s all of us, but we want to fill Ashton Gate too. We want more people to come down and get behind this group because they really deserve it. They work hard day in and day out, they’re proud to wear this badge, they’re proud to play for each other, and they’re proud to play for the fans.<\/p>\n

“The more we can get in and the more noisy that support, the even better for us. Thank you so much, and we’re really looking forward to seeing you next season.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

\"AuthorDaniel Carter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City Women finished Charlotte Healy’s first season in charge at Ashton Gate with a win away to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,45759,748,393,4884,105136,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-939202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-bristol-city-women","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-roy-hodgson","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116521729770385990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939202","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=939202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}