Ben Gilby tells the story of yesterday’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League game between Chelsea and Bristol City from Kingsmeadow from his photos (and a few words!) from the game.
Chelsea 6-1 Bristol City
It was a fast start at Kingsmeadow by Chelsea who were looking to mark Emma Hayes’ 200 game in charge by defeating a Bristol City side who shocked Manchester United at the Leigh Sports Village last time out.
The first fifteen minutes saw the Blues rack up seventy-five per-cent possession and create numerous opportunities to open the scoring, with the midfield probing of Ji So-Yun and Erin Cuthbert particularly impressive:
It was a classic case of rueing a host of missed opportunities (Chelsea could easily have been three or four clear in the opening ten minutes) as, from their very first attack, Bristol City’s Ebony Salmon (second picture below) smashed home, which was responded to with enthusiastic celebrations (immediate photo below).
Chelsea responded well to the shock City goal and steadied the ship and hit back in some style – firstly through Beth England (above). The Lioness is in red hot form for the Blues at the present time, and could have added to her strike shortly afterwards (see reaction to it below).
However, once Chelsea hit the net, they cut through the Bristol City defence at will and scored a further three times before the break with Hannah Blundell, Jess Carter (above) and Ji So-Yun all on target.
The second half saw the arrival of Sam Kerr for Drew Spence, which was shortly followed by Ji adding the fifth. City keeper Sophie Baggaley produced several fine saves (see above) to prevent the home side adding to their tally before England grabbed her second and Chelsea’s sixth with eight minutes left.
A link to the full gallery of Ben’s 50+ photos from the game can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=168732101198586&set=pcb.168734291198367&type=3&theater
Teams:
CHELSEA: Berger, Blundell, Bright, Carter, Andersson, Spence, Ingle, Cuthbert, Ji, Reiten, England. Subs: Kerr (for Spence), Bachmann (for Cuthbert), Napier (for Ji), Engman, Cooper.
Goals: England 28, 82, Blundell 40, Carter 45, Ji 45, 50.
BRISTOL CITY: Baggaley, Matthews, Dykes, Evans, Sargeant, Daniels, Brown, Chance, Pattinson, Hughes, Salmon. Subs: Robinson (for Dykes), van der Linden, Wellings, Cummings, Collis, Sandford, Jones.
Goal: Salmon 15.
Referee: Emily Heaslip
Attendance: 2,866
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