Daniëlle van de Donk (Arsenal) is challenged by Lucy Staniforth (Birmingham City)

November 4, 2018

Pernille Harder converts a pen against Birmingham.

The footballbro Win Stupid Prizes WSL 21/22 Awards

The ”How’s your head?” Award

This is awarded to Leah Williamson for this headed goal from a Katie McCabe corner which looked like she definitely felt that the next day

The “Have some of that” Award

This goes to Kate Longhurst for her celebration against Spurs. Not everyday you see players run right up to the camera in celebration, it was certainly very memorable. 

The “And it was all yellow” Award

This is awarded to Katie McCabe who has managed to get 9 yellow cards over 20 matches. With her record, if she’s playing there’s a good chance she’ll get booked. 

The “Not another one” Award 

This award goes to Everton who have had as many managers as the highest number of goals they’ve scored in a match, three. This is not an award they’ll be wanting to win twice.

The “Fancy footwork” Award

This award goes to Ellie Roebuck attempting to prove that modern goalkeepers must be confident with the ball at their feet. 

The “Should have gone to specsavers” Award

This goes to the third goal Arsenal scored against Chelsea on the opening day of the season as although the goal was given, Beth Mead was offside. This was the start of an unfortunate pattern in the refereeing throughout the season

The “Volleyball” Award

This award goes to that infamous winning goal Spurs scored at City in September, it would be difficult to find a more obvious example of handball. 

The “Desperate times call for desperate measures” Award

This goes to that one game where Man City’s 1st, 2nd and academy keeper were all injured so midfielder Laura Coombs was listed as backup keeper.  

FAWSL and FAWC teams stand together in solidarity with players in the NWSL and around the world.

Photos from the teams' twitters

another week of WSL, another league table to doodle on.

here’s last week’s one btw.

Aoife Mannion: when players at one team suffer we all suffer

"When I first started a few years ago, we asked the club and they didn't have any guidance. My mum and dad went to the FA but they didn't have anything either. That made me want to do something and make a change," she says.

x

Birmingham City

Other Clubs

Christie Murray

DOB: 3rd May 1990

Position: Midfielder #10

Scottish International

Louise Quinn

DOB: 17th June 1990

Position: Defender

Irish International

Birmingham City unveil new signing Rachel Corsie on August 28, 2020

Magdalena Eriksson, Drew Spence, Beth England (with a brace), and Niamh Charles score against Birmingham in the FA Cup.

With this goal, Spence reached a half-century of goals in all competitions.

The footballbro Win Stupid Prizes of the Year Awards 20/21

The “Are you getting deja vu” Award

This goes to Sam Kerr and Grace Moloney who very almost recreated the iconic welcome to the WSL tackle from last season. We were all thinking it as it happened

The “Duck Duck Goose” Award

This award is given to the geese who decided to invade the pitch at Crawley when Brighton played United, honestly it was probably the most interesting thing on the pitch that day.

The “Manager Participation” Award

This goes to Carla Ward who ran onto the pitch and joined the pile on after the 94th minute equaliser against Aston Villa. Can’t blame her at all for this. Just hope that her back’s ok.

The WWE Award

This is awarded to whatever’s going on with the rivalry between Katie McCabe and Erin Cuthbert. Some may call it overly physical, I just call it great entertainment. 

The “Carla Ward Doesn’t Deserve This Shit” Award

This award is awarded to Birmingham City, or rather the board. Need I really explain why. Between injuries, fines, COVID, low budget it’s amazing how well the team’s done. 

The “I Don’t Know What I’m Saying” Award

This is awarded to the FA Player commentators. Some of them are OK. Most of them are not. There are countless times when a player apparently passes to themselves or need we forget the infamous “Ona Badger”. And don’t forget about Williamson in goal. And don’t get me started on JP’s useless facts

The “Unexpected Legend” Award

This is awarded to the mighty No Input Signal who made appearances in a few games at St Georges Park and even got an assist of England against Northern Ireland.

The “Man of the Match Performance” Award

This goes to whoever was wiping the rain off the camera during the Arsenal home game against West Ham. Every time the image got blurry this hand (of god) would clear off all the water.

The “Logic Says No” Award

This goes to the game between Arsenal and Chelsea which ended 1-1 despite Chelsea not having a shot on target. Yes I know it was an own goal, but it definitely reads as a lot of WTF.

The “Welcome to the WSL” Award

This year this award goes to Christen Press who managed to get a yellow card after being on the pitch only a few minutes. Even if it wasn’t her first game it would have been impressive. She seemed remarkably calm with the whole thing as well.

FA Cup Quarter Finals - Wednesday 29th September

All times BST

19:00 Brighton & Hove Albion vs Charlton Athletic 📺 FA Player

19:00 Manchester City vs Leicester City 📺 FA Player 🎧 BBC Sport

19:15 Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur 📺 BBC4/BBC Sport/FA Player

19:45 Birmingham City vs Chelsea 📺 FA Player

Arsenal’s player ratings for Birmingham City vs Arsenal FAWSL Matchday 10 (2-0)

So… it’s actually hard to think of a way to summarise this match because I thought I would be feeling anger and despair (like many others, perfectly justified reaction btw) but honestly as I look back on my viewing experience it was more of just falling deeper and deeper into the pit of disappointment.

A lovely mutual described it as “there’s a lot to be said yet nothing at all.” Which rings true imo. Certainly many things to unpack (the reasons why we looked like we were playing in slow-motion, Jonas completely folding in terms of his tactics and preparation for this game, etc. etc.) but really, it was many of the same things that’s been our downfall since the purple patch ended in mid-November.

Starting XI: Manu — 4.5/10. wasn’t the main culprit of our abysmal performance today and prevented it from getting worse, but those were mostly saves she’s expected to make. can’t say she looked assured in the box when she had that fumble with Lotte and almost let in a third with zero Birmingham players around her. Noelle — 2.5/10. far, very far from the usual composed and reliable Noelle Martiz we’re used to seeing who usually has the right flank locked down without question. misplaced passes all over (which was seriously a recurring theme for practically every player on the pitch today) and she barely supported Beth going forward too. Jen — 1.5/10. i’m done, she’s no longer a player good enough for this club/level of football and today was an undeniable demonstration of why. awful positioning and touches, getting outrun by Pennock and Sari all day long, and god knows what she was doing with that pathetic attempt at clearing the ball for the second goal. i’ve said it before, if you know you have absolutely zero pace to catch up with attackers, you at least have to have some decent positioning so you can give yourself a head start. and yet time and again she was getting caught in no man’s land and balls were slicing open the gaps between her and Boye. she also contributes fuck all when it comes to build up and takes a thousand years to release the ball to the fullbacks or midfielders. when we shift their defensive shape around a bit but then it constantly sits at Jen’s feet for over three or four Mississippis, there’s no option left to play and we have to start from scratch again. i almost pulled my hair out watching our two CBs and their woeful distribution today. ngl, this got on my nerves more than anything today. Simone Boye — 2/10. haven’t seen a single performance from her that’s been close to impressive and am still scratching my head as to why Jonas signed her. our defending and CB situation is just a joke at this point. no disrespect to them because they were fantastic today, but our backline was struggling and looking thoroughly outplayed by a Birmingham offence that had scored a grand total of four goals all season up till today. four. might sound cutthroat or reactionary (since it’s after a stupid loss) but i’m being serious that only Leah and Lotte should be part of our plans going forward. I’m sure they’re lovely people but the rest can be squad players; I don’t want to see them again in front of Manu because they’re going to lose the league title for us. whoever it is we’re signing this transfer window, start them ASAP. idc if they’ve never played in this league before or they’ve had all of one training session, they can’t be worse than this. Katie — 2.5/10. poor. it spoke volumes as to how dire the entire defending situation was when you’ve got the likes of Beth and Mana hanging out around our own corner flag getting so far back to help defend, and Viv dropping ever so deep repeatedly. Katie’s set-pieces and corners have been on a decline too, none of her deliveries came to anything today although it must be said that Birmingham defended crosses from both wings magnificently. always the first head to the ball, and barely let our attackers get a whiff near goal. also, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who noticed this, but what was up with Katie not passing to Mana at all?? (and later to Jordan too, when those two swapped positions). doesn’t like a vertical pass forward or doesn’t want to receive the layback from the winger in front of her? honestly, it played a big part in stifling our buildup and isolating Mana for a good part of the game. Frida — 3.5/10. no excuse that she wasn’t intended to start, there were just so many situations where she should have done better. i would say she was almost invisible in that midfield and was the player with the least presence out of the three. i mean, the commentators even singled her out with a closeup shot near the end saying that she was playing far below her standards today :( as i’ve said before in my reviews, it’s not the first time she wasn't offering herself as an outlet/option enough to receive a pass from the defenders, and even when she tried to progress the ball it was just passes into nowhere.

Kim — 4/10. had an open net to slot the ball into for the equaliser, but slammed it into the Birmingham defender instead. otherwise, she had one of the better performances in the team, but she was part of a midfield that was culpable in not getting on the ball enough and providing any form of service or final passes to the forwards. one gripe I have is that I didn’t really see a visible impetus from her to rally the team and get everyone to show some fight as the captain when we looked so disjointed… Louise Quinn looked the superior leader and player on the pitch in every way today tbh.

Jordan — 4/10. likewise to Kim, had a killer opportunity 1v1 with the keeper but dinked it past when she should’ve at least been hitting the target. still, I’d say she was lively with her movement and showed some gusto to make things happen. coupled with her mid-range shot that flew into the sun during the first half, i think she actually had the far better scoring opportunities than most of the forwards? idk whether to be sad or happy about that actually...

Beth — 4/10. i mean, everyone could see that she was trying. giving a damn. beautifully clever layoff to Kim in the first half (that she also should’ve done better with) and Beth was doing her best to create on the right side but she was mostly on a solo mission and without support (from anyone! literally, the nearest player always looked at least 7 or 8 yards away from her). unfortunately became a bit of a passenger in the second half but you can’t really blame her for that.

Mana — 4/10. threaded some cute passes and looked one of the most likely to make something happen in the first half, but really it was a subpar day at the office for her too. drifted in and out of the game, and couldn’t get on the ball as much as she’d like to and even when she did it was too far down the pitch where she couldn’t do anything substantial with it. the commentator said at one point, “she probably wishes she was away at the Asian Cup and not here” and i was like, you think? even the European players wished they were away at the Asian Cup today.

Viv — 4/10. maybe the bun jinx is real 👀 jk, it’s fun to deflect the blame on that but sometimes we just have to admit that Viv isn’t nowhere near the form that the team needs her to be in and what knows she’s capable of. fair to say that the front three were really starved of service and any creative balls from midfield today, but girl, waaay too much dawdling on the ball and running herself into a cul-de-sac when she could’ve picked a pass instead. Viv also said, “my bestie got a yellow so imma be a supportive friend and get one myself too 🙃” still, i’m having none of that “Viv doesn’t care” or “she’s leaving” nonsense from some fools because it was evident that her passion (or frustration) was bubbling over from her desire to try and drag the team back into the game.

*you might think the attackers shouldn’t be this high of a rating, but I don’t think they to be marked down because they were really crippled by how ineffective our backline was. goes to show yet again, how crucial our buildup from the back is reliant on the CBs (namely LEAH) because it was due to her spraying passes and breaking the press that our attackers had room to play and create goals. today, the defence and midfield made it really hard for the front three to have the space or time they needed to generate chances. and worse so because we weren’t playing a Barca who suffocates you in possession or a typical lower-ranked side who just parks themselves in the box (which may actually have been better for us). it was an actual open game, and we still failed at stringing together simple passes to the forwards...

Subs:

Lotte — 3/10. i won’t fault Jonas too much for not starting her, but why tf wasn’t she brought on earlier when BOTH CBs were having an absolute mare?? she didn’t look the most assured, certainly with that mix-up with Manu from the corner, but she better start the next match.

Bonus:

Jonas Eidevall — 3/10. well he said it himself, he “takes 100% full responsibility.” but also that they “didn’t look like a team that understood the plan”? so was the failure the plan itself, conveying the plan, or the ability to execute the plan? anyway, hardly a convincing answer that gives me shades of the Chelsea FA Cup Final where the entire team crumbled in a similar manner and his excuse was exactly along these lines. but somehow, with the depleted squad and all the players looking devoid of energy and ideas, I can’t really condemn him so much for today’s showing. but as the ridiculous losses pile up, he’s just showing day by day that he isn’t anywhere near the hype he got early on in the season. whatever the team situation, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s got a stable of world quality, star players who should never be losing to a Birmingham team, no matter how determined and well-drilled they are. getting the best of our players who have proven individual quality to play as a team is his job, what else is he there for?

Referee — 4/10. some blatant fouls ignored (Viv’s one wasn’t a penalty by any means, but she didn’t even give anything at all for that one when Viv was clearly sent over). other than that, nothing could’ve been more of an issue with me than our performance itself, and Birmingham weren’t too annoying with the time wasting as other teams could’ve certainly been, had they been in the same position. kudos to them. Overall: the winter break really returned our girls in the worst possible condition at the worst possible time. (losing players to the Asian Cup, injuries nowhere near return, tough fixtures incoming and so on…) throughout the match, I thought the commentary was being way too poisonous and naysaying at every error made by our players, but there were also far too little positives to point out. we undoubtedly looked lethargic and playing with sandbags attached to our legs at times. how we’re going to get over the late Jan-Feb period and the way the title race with Chelsea might pan out is a whole other discussion so I’ll save that for the asks, but most of my hopes rest on the transfer window now.

oh, MOTM goes to Birmingham as a team for an absolute monster performance where absolutely everyone pulled their weight, but specifically their backline impressed me very much today. playing with conviction, constant organisation, in sync and perfect covering for each other — everything our defence aspires to be.