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Welcome back to 31/7 and to another week of women's football goodness. Here's what it holds for you:
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- an interrogation of 'the truth'
- a fun Bukayo Saka GIF
- a cherished Arnold Clark Cup throwback
- and other good bits!
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Anyone who was looking forward to getting their fix of WAG drama was let down on Wednesday as Ruesha Littlejohn's showdown with Caitlin Foord was postponed due to a water-logged pitch.
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London City Lionesses had been well up for the fight. The match was sold out days ahead of kick off and Arsenal's surprise defeat to relegation-battling West Ham made a headline-grabbing scalp in the Continental Cup quarter-final look all the more possible.
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Bloody England. Too hot in the summer, too damn wet in the winter. Perhaps we should retire the beautiful game altogether. If we want to protect this country's precious WAG heritage, our only hope is making carpet bowls our national sport instead.
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When the postponement was announced mere hours before the scheduled kick off, fans were fuming. Couldn't they have called it off before supporters began flocking from all corners of the UK to the historic battle site?
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It seems a bit rough, but hey, it's not the first time fans have been the least priority in football and it won't be the last. What's more, the London City Lionesses couldn't help it if the heavens opened, washing away the worth of a full week spent claw-sharpening.... could they?
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Those supporters disappointed that drama they craved had been snatched away from them didn't have to wait long for their next feed. On Wednesday evening, around the time when they should have been fighting Arsenal on the pitch, a boardroom announcement came out of nowhere.
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Blimey. The funereal black and white seats pic and all. It's a sad day for everyone associated with London City Lionesses.
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Bollocks to that. Not the 'we can confirm' as well! What's up with that? At secondary school, one whiff of a grammatical weakness in asking 'can I go to the toilet?' was all one smart-arse teacher needed to turn the question round on you and insist you evaluate your own capacity to pass urine in front of all your 12-year-old friends and enemies.
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We will confirm. We are confirming. We confirm. Confirmation is being given. Consider this notice confirmation of termination. Kill confirmed.
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Busy day at Princes Park, then. Pitch inspection at 3pm, sacking at 5pm. Or was it?
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It's been a wet week in the UK. But a brief glance at the weather suggests that Princes Park was only subjected to one period of 'light rain' on Tuesday night. Enough water to log a pitch? Who can say.
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Back in October, my Leeds Hyde Park teammates and I as good as threw away our hopes of winning the title with a shock 1-0 defeat to Republica, who are two places off the bottom spot in part thanks to their result against us, one of just two wins they've achieved this season. It was disappointing but it made sense, since the atmosphere in our team stank of uncertainty and discord amid a turbulent change of coach.
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Knowing this, I wouldn't be surprised if, with Morace's exit on the horizon, the London City Lionesses CEO had the squad out performing a rain dance to ward off a visit from the Gunners.
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You might have heard that Arsenal chucked all their dreams of winning the Women's Super League in the bin this weekend. On Leah Williamson's special day and all. Shameful.
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It was supposed to be a celebration of the queen's return to the starting line-up. Instead, it was an embarrassment. Twenty-three shots, only five on target? What would your mother say?
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Fortunately, though, Gooners were too hung up on the way that Alessia Russo celebrated the one goal Arsenal did score to focus on all the bad stuff. By a stroke of luck, the travelling fans were seated behind the single net she fired it into. But that clearly meant NOTHING to Russo who, after heading Arsenal in the lead, turned away from the limbs and hugged all the friends who helped to make it happen.
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Unbelievable!! I can't believe it. We've travelled all the way to east London from *checks notes* north London and all I'm getting is a really good goal scored right under my nose from the most famous British striker in recent history. Why isn't this about ME!
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These days football fans think they are entitled to an ever-increasing proportion of
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their favourite players' attention, affections, time, commitment, clothing etc. Not even Russo's joy is off limits.
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Scoring a good goal is a good feeling, having people claw and shout at you like you're John Lennon circa 1964 is another thing altogether. Maybe Russo doesn't want Russo-mania.
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Or, maybe she does, and she hasn't realised it yet. Arsenal journalist Tim Stilman made a good point:
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As recently as two years ago Russo would've looked a right muppet cavorting performatively in front of a host of mostly empty seats. Before the fans came in their thousands, being a football player was first and foremost about your game and your football-playing teammates. Old habits die hard.
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Don't worry, though, Gooners, if the Premier League is anything to go by then the future is bright for fans of the Women's Super League.
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Give it a few more years of sell-out stadiums and deals deals deals and before we know it, celebrating with teammates OR fans will be shelved to make way for looking dead cool in front of your global TV audience.
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Uh oh! Rachel Daly's difficult second season at Aston Villa has just taken a turn for the worse.
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On a wave of Euros success, the Lionesses' utility player came home at the start of last season after a decade of doing Rachel Daly stuff to great effect over in the United States of America. After a summer at full back under Sarina Wiegman, she marked her return to England with a swashbuckling 22 goals in 22 games, helping Aston Villa to an impressive fifth place.
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After some very handsome additions to their squad last summer, Villa's 2023/24 Women's Super League campaign looked promising indeed. But so far, it's been a flop. Carla Ward's side lost all five of their opening games and, though form has lifted since then, Daly's strike rate of once every two games pales by comparison to last term's every-week-without-fail (almost).
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All of this came to a head when Villa were frustrated by relegation candidates Bristol City at the weekend. When you're having a shit season, you can always look forward to facing a team whose record thus far reads: played 11, lost 10.
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But resisting the drop with all their might, City were in no mood to hand over the points. Within two minutes of Jordan Nobbs putting Villa ahead, Amalie Thestrup had levelled for Bristol.
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Villa's shot accuracy was not nearly as poor as Arsenal's, but they still managed to make a whopping 22 off-target efforts at goal. That's more than two for every outfield player, and you can be sure Daly was taking more than her fair share of those.
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Daly wasn't scoring again and, if her performance in England's Arnold Clark Cup win over Italy last February was anything to go by, Big Rach isn't great at keeping her Big Emotions in check.
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What you're seeing here is the aftermath of a knee slide, complete with a full set of gun fingers, after Daly scored in a glorified friendly against a team ranked 14th in the world.
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I'm all for celebrating any goals of any kind in any way you want to, but as far as I'm aware, Daly is yet to hear the last of her over-exuberance from her mocking teammates.
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On Saturday, Daly was back to getting carried away, but in less enjoyable circumstances. Wanting to score a goal and not scoring a goal is a feeling I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and part of being a professional striker is coping with the highs and the lows and not losing your head when things don't go your way.
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On this occasion though, the strength of her frustration caused Daly to do a naughty — a big one at that.
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Four days after the whistle blew on a draw with Bristol City, Aston Villa announced that Daly had accepted a three-match ban for an incident of violent conduct that was missed by the referee and only later picked up on the television cameras. Uh oh!
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The best bit of all this is I can't find any footage of the altercation — said to be an elbow in the face! — meaning I can't even tell how big the naughty is. Three day suspensions don't come around often, though, and the fact that Daly held her hands up before charging in with an appeal points toward a heat-of-the-moment boo-boo which she knows she can't deny.
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By the skin of their teeth (a penalty shoot-out in which only two penalties were scored), Villa survived their Continental Cup quarter-final against Brighton and Hove Albion without her, but the rest of her ban leaves her with only seven Women's Super League games left to score the 16 goals needed to match last season's tally.
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Get your skates on, Rach!
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- Sunday — Division One North
- Leeds United Women host Chorley at Garforth Town
- The Whites are nine points shy of the league's sole division spot, but manager Simon Wood isn't giving up hope yet. "Teams will drop results," he told LUTV.
- Sunday — West Riding County First Division
- My Leeds Hyde Park teammates and I are primed to take advantage of our games in hand and chase down league leaders Ilkley Town.
- We're taking on fourth-placed Golcar United this weekend, though everyone is looking at the soggy forecast and wondering whether our cherished home ground Elida Gibbs will be fit to perform.
- Saturday / Sunday — the FA Cup
- The headline fixture is Arsenal v Man City, which kicks off at 12.30pm on Sunday. After defeat to struggling West Ham set back Arsenal's title hopes last weekend, Gooners gon' lose it if their side get knocked out.
- The lowest-ranked sides left in the competition are Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who both compete in the third-tier FAWNL Northern Premier and face Everton and Brighton and Hove Albion respectively.
- March / April — Champions League
- Chelsea's route to the Champions League final has been drawn.
- Next, they'll face Ajax for a place in the semi-finals, where they could face either Barcelona or Brann.
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Won with the wind
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Ponytails flapping like flags, goalkeepers’ knees knocking at deadballs. “It’s not always easy to come to the north east and play football,” said Olivia Smart.
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