21 Sep: Ipswich Town, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £7 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website. 24 Sep: West Ham United, league cup, home, 7pm. At the Valley. £8 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website. 28 Sep: Newcastle United, away, 2pm. At Gateshead athletics. £8.50 adult, £3 senior or under-21. Tickets from here. 28 Sep: ACADEMY TEAM v Chesham United (tier 4), away, 2pm. Entry is normally through the club house for women's games at Chesham. They charged £5 for their league cup game against QPR's first team. 5 Oct: Sunderland, away, 2pm. At the Stadium Of Light. £10 adult, £8 over-65 or under-22, £5 under-18. Tickets from here. 12 Oct: Sheffield United, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £7 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website. 19 Oct: Portsmouth, league cup, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £8 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website.
The Portsmouth league cup game is missing from the fixture list for some reason, but is listed on the ticket sale site. The usual sections in West Lower are on sale.
Having watched the Durham game, I don't think we are stronger than last season but there are more promotion places and the league doesn't seem stronger.
Obviously too early to tell but I think Durham are potentially stronger than previous years and that result may end up being more significant than it seems
I think the league is wide open this year. Last year, with just one promotion place available and with London City Lionesses spending the money they spent, we or anybody else would have had to be perfect to get the better of them. This season there are three places to play for and no obvious moneybags team (though Birmingham have invested a fair amount, and Bristol City Women have just been taken over by group called Mercury13 with investors including Juan Mata, Giorgio Chiellini and Eni Aluko), so I think there will be several teams who believe they can go up.
As fenaddick says, it's hard to tell whether we're stronger than last year. We won our first four games last season, though three of them were against the bottom three who were all rubbish, so for us to be the only team to win two from two at this point - with those two being Crystal Palace and Durham, while missing a key attacking player in Katie Bradley for the latter - is a statement of intent to the rest of the league. I think there's a lack of pace in the team now that Ellie Brazil has gone as well as a slight lack of physicality up front without Kayleigh Barton, and as has been mentioned before we'll struggle if Charlotte Newsham and/or Jodie Hutton are out for any period of time. But one major positive is that our starting eleven has been more than competitive in both games, and then we've had players come off the bench who have made a difference: Gillian Kenney looks a good find, Lucy Fitzgerald and Mary McAteer have posed a real threat in their two appearances off the bench, Keira Flannery seems on early evidence to be an upgrade on Mary Bashford, and Janice Chimes did really well on Sunday too. The defence looks pretty solid for the most part, so we might not need to score that many to win games.
Ipswich will be an intriguing test on Sunday. They're newly promoted and have lost both games so far without scoring, so if we are genuine promotion contenders then we should be looking to beat them relatively comfortably (Beth Roe and the ex-player curse notwithstanding!). Karen Hills' use of the term "game-changers" suggests she might prefer to stick with broadly the same starting eleven, but I'd definitely like to see what the likes of Kenney, Fitzgerald, McAteer and Chimes can do from the start. Plus there's Gloria Siber - is there any reason why she hasn't been involved at all so far?
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24 Sep: West Ham United, league cup, home, 7pm. At the Valley. £8 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website.
28 Sep: Newcastle United, away, 2pm. At Gateshead athletics. £8.50 adult, £3 senior or under-21. Tickets from here.
28 Sep: ACADEMY TEAM v Chesham United (tier 4), away, 2pm. Entry is normally through the club house for women's games at Chesham. They charged £5 for their league cup game against QPR's first team.
5 Oct: Sunderland, away, 2pm. At the Stadium Of Light. £10 adult, £8 over-65 or under-22, £5 under-18. Tickets from here.
12 Oct: Sheffield United, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £7 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website.
19 Oct: Portsmouth, league cup, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £8 adult, £5 over-65, £2 under-18. Tickets from usual website.
The Portsmouth league cup game is missing from the fixture list for some reason, but is listed on the ticket sale site. The usual sections in West Lower are on sale.
I assume it will be the same for the other cup games.
As fenaddick says, it's hard to tell whether we're stronger than last year. We won our first four games last season, though three of them were against the bottom three who were all rubbish, so for us to be the only team to win two from two at this point - with those two being Crystal Palace and Durham, while missing a key attacking player in Katie Bradley for the latter - is a statement of intent to the rest of the league. I think there's a lack of pace in the team now that Ellie Brazil has gone as well as a slight lack of physicality up front without Kayleigh Barton, and as has been mentioned before we'll struggle if Charlotte Newsham and/or Jodie Hutton are out for any period of time. But one major positive is that our starting eleven has been more than competitive in both games, and then we've had players come off the bench who have made a difference: Gillian Kenney looks a good find, Lucy Fitzgerald and Mary McAteer have posed a real threat in their two appearances off the bench, Keira Flannery seems on early evidence to be an upgrade on Mary Bashford, and Janice Chimes did really well on Sunday too. The defence looks pretty solid for the most part, so we might not need to score that many to win games.
Ipswich will be an intriguing test on Sunday. They're newly promoted and have lost both games so far without scoring, so if we are genuine promotion contenders then we should be looking to beat them relatively comfortably (Beth Roe and the ex-player curse notwithstanding!). Karen Hills' use of the term "game-changers" suggests she might prefer to stick with broadly the same starting eleven, but I'd definitely like to see what the likes of Kenney, Fitzgerald, McAteer and Chimes can do from the start. Plus there's Gloria Siber - is there any reason why she hasn't been involved at all so far?
Our ex players seemed to torment Ipswich on opening day for Southampton, hopefully their replacements do the same