I know they've just come up and we came within a whisker of promotion, but we've been dominant for the vast majority of the game and if anything 3-0 flatters Portsmouth slightly
Really good performance for the most part, and the job was done inside 25 minutes.
Ellie "It's just like watching" Brazil is going to make a big difference – she scored two, could have had four by half-time, and was a constant threat. Scoring goals was our main Achilles heel last season, and she looks like the solution (though some of the powderpuff finishing returned after she was taken off, so if she gets injured we might have a problem).
The defence was as solid as before, with Newsham slotting in nicely and Jodie Hutton getting forward well to score our second with a powerful shot. Mary Bashford and Carla Humphrey impressed in midfield, while Mel Filis grew into it after starting poorly. The decision-making was a bit sloppy at times, but that should improve as the season progresses.
Basically the ideal start to the season. Tougher tests to come perhaps, but well done Karen and the team.
Birmingham 5-0 up, apparently they've thrown quite a bit of money at the women's team as well as the men's...
Annoying. There's a Birmingham women's fan I particularly can't stand and I don't want her to be happy. Sunderland are generally a good side as well. With Birmingham and Newcastle suddenly pretending to care about women's football we might rue missing out by one point last season for a while
A good win today, all to often last season we drew against teams in the bottom half of the table, or had narrow wins so it's nice to have a comfortable win against one for a change.
I think our main rivals for promotion will be Birmingham.
Portsmouth look primed to go straight back down based on today
Nathan Jones and Curtis Fleming both watched most of the game. Charlie Methven was also there.
Good! For all his flaws one thing I really admired about Dean Holden was his support of the women’s team (although I have no idea if I went to a match or not) and it’s nice to see NJ has picked that back up
Went today with my daughter, her first season ticket season. Thought first half we absolutely controlled it, apart from one shot off the bar. Could quite easily have been 5 or 6 up at the break.
Second half although still the most likely, we got a bit sloppy and some of the decision making in the final third let us down. Ademiluyi in particular, looked quite lively but 2 or 3 times picked the wrong option at the crucial time.
Really liked the look of Brazil, and especially her link up play with Barton and Humphrey, at times it had Portsmouth all over the place.
Much harder games to come, Birmingham, London City and Newcastle I'm expecting to all be towards the top end.
Apologies if already mentioned. The Grauniad predicts we’ll come first. That’s us scuppered.
Obviously the Guardian website then ran two fawning pieces in two days on London City Lionesses...
Really pleased to hear the women got off to a strong start, especially as it's looking like a really tough league.
If we've got men's and women's matches on the same weekends, then the club needs to pull its finger out and market the women's team more locally - a lot of families will be put off Saturday men's football for whatever reason but may really get into the Sunday game.
Think there's going to be BIG pressure on the new company to reform quickly. Now LCL have money and there's us, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sunderland & Bristol City in the division there will be a lot of really disappointed and influential teams pushing hard for at least a play off place and a larger WSL
I've no idea if an expansion of WSL is going to happen, but there are certainly people suggesting it. Now there are more full-time teams in the Championship there's more serious competition for places. I think there's an effect from there being a standard arrangement at pretty much all levels of the women's game that there are 12 teams in a division of which 1 goes up and 2 go down, with twice as many divisions at the lower level.
WSL clubs have been resistant to having more relegation slots because of the vast difference in investment needed for the two divisions. That's becoming less the case now, and with new clubs like Newcastle working their way up there will start to be more of the traditional WSL clubs at our level and wanting to get back. At which point I think there will be more pressure for at least a playoff with second-last in the WSL for the second-placed team.
LCL and Newcastle will both expect to be in the WSL within 2 seasons max and will have the financial clout to pull strings behind the scenes and make this happen.
I'd very surprised if we didn't see an expansion of the WSL very soon. If for no other reason to protect the interests of the bigger sides. All 12 teams in the WSL now have equivalent men's teams in the Premier League. Most Premier League teams that have not had strong women's teams in the past have started backing them much more strongly over the last couple of years. With only 12 places it's going to be much more competitive to not only get up, but stay up.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if it goes to 16 or even 18 teams within the next few years.
I really hope so. The idea some people have suggesting it should be a closed league is frankly ridiculous and stops teams in the second tier and below growing. I've no doubt our attendance would go up if Arsenal, Chelsea, etc. were coming to The Valley. We wouldn't be making it look close to full at all but it would definitely be a more attractive proposition
Apparently Newcastle outnumbered London City in terms of numbers yesterday. So may well get a bigger crowd for that. Portsmouth had more away fans than average as well. Not sure I've seen an official number for the gate yesterday.
14 Sep (Saturday): Sheffield United, away. 5.30pm. At Bramall Lane. £10 adult, £5 senior, junior, disabled or student. Tickets from here. 22 Sep: Durham, HOME, 12 noon. At The Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18 29 Sep: Blackburn Rovers, away. 12 noon. At Ewood Park. £10 adult, £8 over-65, £6 under-18, £4 under-12. Tickets from here. 2 Oct (Weds): Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup), HOME, 7.15pm. At The Valley. Prices to be confirmed. 6 Oct: Sunderland, HOME, 2pm. At The Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. Also live on YouTube. 13 Oct: London City Lionesses, away. 2pm. At Hayes Lane (Bromley FC). £13 adult, £9 over-65, £9 under-23, £7 under-18. Tickets from here (sold by Bromley).
A three minute highlights clip of the Portsmouth game has gone up on the club YouTube site. Some good goals in there, but the crowd doesn't look particularly big.
Comments
Birmingham 5-0 up, apparently they've thrown quite a bit of money at the women's team as well as the men's...
Ellie "It's just like watching" Brazil is going to make a big difference – she scored two, could have had four by half-time, and was a constant threat. Scoring goals was our main Achilles heel last season, and she looks like the solution (though some of the powderpuff finishing returned after she was taken off, so if she gets injured we might have a problem).
The defence was as solid as before, with Newsham slotting in nicely and Jodie Hutton getting forward well to score our second with a powerful shot. Mary Bashford and Carla Humphrey impressed in midfield, while Mel Filis grew into it after starting poorly. The decision-making was a bit sloppy at times, but that should improve as the season progresses.
Basically the ideal start to the season. Tougher tests to come perhaps, but well done Karen and the team.
I think our main rivals for promotion will be Birmingham.
Portsmouth look primed to go straight back down based on today
Second half although still the most likely, we got a bit sloppy and some of the decision making in the final third let us down. Ademiluyi in particular, looked quite lively but 2 or 3 times picked the wrong option at the crucial time.
Really liked the look of Brazil, and especially her link up play with Barton and Humphrey, at times it had Portsmouth all over the place.
Much harder games to come, Birmingham, London City and Newcastle I'm expecting to all be towards the top end.
Really pleased to hear the women got off to a strong start, especially as it's looking like a really tough league.
If we've got men's and women's matches on the same weekends, then the club needs to pull its finger out and market the women's team more locally - a lot of families will be put off Saturday men's football for whatever reason but may really get into the Sunday game.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yknkpml5go
WSL clubs have been resistant to having more relegation slots because of the vast difference in investment needed for the two divisions. That's becoming less the case now, and with new clubs like Newcastle working their way up there will start to be more of the traditional WSL clubs at our level and wanting to get back. At which point I think there will be more pressure for at least a playoff with second-last in the WSL for the second-placed team.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if it goes to 16 or even 18 teams within the next few years.
22 Sep: Durham, HOME, 12 noon. At The Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18
29 Sep: Blackburn Rovers, away. 12 noon. At Ewood Park. £10 adult, £8 over-65, £6 under-18, £4 under-12. Tickets from here.
2 Oct (Weds): Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup), HOME, 7.15pm. At The Valley. Prices to be confirmed.
6 Oct: Sunderland, HOME, 2pm. At The Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. Also live on YouTube.
13 Oct: London City Lionesses, away. 2pm. At Hayes Lane (Bromley FC). £13 adult, £9 over-65, £9 under-23, £7 under-18. Tickets from here (sold by Bromley).
https://www.charltonafc.com/video/player/0_40d3oii7