Women's League Cup Results Part 2 (played 2/10/22) (Bull, Clark, Cleverly, Estcourt, Filbey, K Green, Elise Hughes, Longhurst, F Morgan, Powell, Smith, Soper, Teisar)

If you have no idea what's going on with regard to how the competition works and why teams who lost haven't been knocked out, this page might help you. On the other hand, it might not....

GROUP C

Birmingham City 3-2 Brighton & Hove Albion

Charlie Estcourt was an unused substitute as Birmingham of the Championship beat the Super League’s Brighton. 

Birmingham went ahead after 25 minutes and remained in the lead for the rest of the match, but Brighton kept the pressure on, twice reducing a two-goal deficit, though unable to find the equaliser that could have got them a point or two. Forward Kayleigh Green played as a left-sided centre back for Brighton. Highlights can be watched here.

Birmingham are top. West Ham are second with two points after beating London City Lionesses in the penalty shoot-out. I’ll let you guess where Brighton are.

 

GROUP D

Bristol City 4-0 Crystal Palace

Olivia Clark kept a clean sheet on her Bristol City debut and it’s fair to say she was happy with it. To begin with, it looked an open game, with Olivia needing to save twice from Palace’s Elise Hughes in the opening minutes. There were more great moments from Olivia, including a notable double save in the second half.

Ffion Morgan set up the second goal of the game with a cross and was very active in attack for Bristol, coming very close to scoring herself. Chloe Bull made her first start since returning from injury in central midfield and was also very much involved in Bristol’s assaults on the Palace goal. Elise Hughes and Anna Filbey started for Palace.

Ella Powell appeared as a Bristol substitute on 67 minutes, with Tianna Teisar joining her eight minutes later.

Lewes 2-0 Charlton Athletic

Poppy Soper made not just her Charlton debut, but her debut as a professional footballer (unless I've got that wrong. Unlike the other Poppy, I get things wrong a lot). Poppy made an impressive save late in the first half, but Lewes were lucky and scored from the rebound. Let’s hope there will be more opportunities for Poppy going forward (but not literally as you only want to bring your goalkeeper forward if you’re really desperate).

Tegan McGowan also started for Charlton and was involved in an early onslaught for Charlton, but Lewes eventually cleared.

Rhian Cleverly made her first start for Lewes since returning from injury and was replaced after 62 minutes by Josie Longhurst. Zoe Smith was on the bench.

Bristol City are top, ahead of Lewes on goal difference. Charlton are ahead of Palace for the same reason.