Football / Bristol City Women
Positives must be taken from Bristol City Women’s torrid season
Relegation now seems a certainty for Bristol City Women, but there are plenty of positives to take away from this torrid season in the top flight.
The Robins currently take up the sole relegation spot in the Women’s Super League (WSL), sitting rock-bottom of the pile and six points adrift of safety.
With a tricky run-in, which includes playing each of the top six sides, Lauren Smith’s side have been under immense pressure to capture some precious points in their previous five games against their relegation rivals.
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However, having conceded 19 goals in those five games, including seven to Brighton alone, and securing only one point, they now look destined to return to the Women’s Championship next season, that will be just two tiers above Bristol Rovers Women who recently gained promotion to the National League.
City Women lost their last home game 7-3 to Brighton & Hove Albion – photo: Andy Watts/Bristol City
It hasn’t simply been a case of bad luck for the side either, with them yet to keep one clean sheet this season and failing to obtain even a solitary point at Ashton Gate.
To make matters worse, come the end of the season, the Robins could break several records certainly not worth boasting about, including the fewest points in a season, fewest home points in a season and most defeats in a season.
Despite these facts spelling out just how horrendous City’s season has been, there are still plenty of positives to take from it, and these must be recognised and celebrated.
Undeterred by their defensive woes, the Robins have at time played some superb attacking football, which has seen them score 20 goals, a tally only bettered by any substantial margin by the top four teams.
City, who look likely to score the most goals in a 22-game season by a relegated team, have, therefore, shown that in an attacking sense, they can compete with the best.
At the helm of this attack is Danish striker Amalie Thestrup, the fourth-highest scorer in the league with nine goals to her name.
Former Liverpool striker Thestrup’s form and the team’s overall attacking strength should give Robins’ fans hope ahead of next season, as Lauren Smith should only have to fix the lacklustre defence to ensure that if they do go down, they bounce straight back up.
“We’re scoring goals, yet we’re still losing games,” Smith said after the 7-3 defeat to Brighton at Ashton Gate. “Our focus has to be on defensive work.”
Their attacking prowess was on full display in the second half of the ten-goal thriller as they rallied from 4-1 down to score twice in a few minutes before putting the visitors under substantial pressure as they went in search of an equaliser.
Regarding this monumental effort to get themselves back in the game, Smith said: “Their reaction was unbelievable; the way they galvanised as a team in those moments was really key. That is certainly one positive.”
She added: “Which group do you want to be in, the one that just accepts it and exits or the one that fights until the very death until someone says you’re done, and I think we’d all jump towards the second of the two.”
This was not the first time the Robins have displayed this ‘never say die’ attitude this season, as they came from behind twice against Aston Villa and Everton to earn a well-deserved point on both occasions.
Much like their impressive attacking displays, this resilience will go a long way to helping the club bounce back next season and eventually become an established Super League team.
However, this season’s greatest triumph has undoubtedly come off the pitch.
While last season’s promotion-winning campaign saw City playing the majority of their games at the Robins High Performance Centre in Failand, this season, they have graced the Ashton Gate turf for each of their home fixtures.
Bristol City Women played their games at the Robins High Performance Centre last season – photo: JMP
Moving to the home of the men’s side has seen the team’s fanbase grow substantially, with a record-breaking crowd of 14,138 attending the game against Manchester United back in November, and the club having the fourth-highest average attendance in the WSL at 7,687.
Just over 12,000 fans watched Bristol City Women play Arsenal at Ashton Gate in October 2023 – photo: JMP
While the change of home venue has massively contributed towards this growth, there is much more to it than that.
Anyone who has attended a women’s game in BS3 this season will have been met with an in-house DJ playing pop bangers, pyrotechnic displays, matchday drummers, Panini sticker trading stations, and, perhaps best of all, two fully-grown adults competing in a relay race involving giant Thatcher’s apples.
By hosting not only a game of football but what also feels like an entire show, the Robins have created a matchday experience which focuses on building a sense of community and keeping fans coming back for more.
The fact they have built this fanbase without the allure of having a corresponding Premier League brand in the men’s game makes it all the more impressive.
With the crowd consistently being full of young female fans, there is no doubt that the players are actively inspiring the next generation of female players, something they should all be immensely proud of.
Main photo: JMP
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