Football in the UK & Ireland season 2018/19

Not that I'm a fan of ManU to begin with, but I guess I'm glad they're showing they're not here having a WoSo side just to have one - they're gonna take it seriously.

 

Scotland: More amazing scores from the top 2 as they chase the championship - Glasgow City beat Forfar 6-0 last week, then Hibernian won 7-2 against Celtic this week, with smaller winning margins in their other games.

Again, it leaves the table incredibly tight:

SWPL 1 - five games to go
1 GlasgowC 16Pl 14W 2D 0L +50GD (57–7) 44pts
2 Hibernian 16Pl 14W 2D 0L +49GD (61–12) 44pts​

In SWPL 2, congrats to Motherwell, who've gained promotion with five games to go in the season, leading Kilmarnock by 16 points. Not so tight in that division!

- https://www.womenspremierleague.co.uk/news/motherwell-clinch-sbsswpl-2-title/ (Archived)

The relegation battle will be between Spartans (9pts) and Hamilton (7pts) to avoid the single relegation spot from SWPL 1.

Petershill Park will host the likely title decider, Glasgow City v
Hibernian, in the season's penultimate week on October 21
(Thomas Nugent / Petershill Park / CC BY-SA 2.0)​

England: The WSL and Championship seasons will get underway after the international break this week

This article had a good run-through of the main talking points:

- https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...usion-chelsea-fa-league-cup-manchester-united (Archived)

After that low attendance at Prenton Park, there were 4,800 at Leigh to see the new club in action. And, if I may say, god bless Reading:

"Man Utd Women 0-2 Reading Women: Record crowd watch hosts lose"
- https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45311846

Good luck to Man Utd and all that, but the media coverage of them has been a bit as if women's football didn't exist already. Let's hope the crowds will hold up - it's good to see so many people who care about the Continental Cup.

In the third tier, Stoke lead the Northern division, and Doncaster Belles have conceded 14 goals in 2 games (against top teams, but still sad).

 

here's the full game replay between England & Wales


good pregame show , commentator Alex Scott mentioned coach "Phil Neville wants to be in every aspect of his players life". Hmm..........wasn't Mark Sampson as well?

 

Any highlights of yesterday's Arsenal - Liverpool match? Haven't found them yet myself. Arsenal is good.

 

Here's a fun article on Ali Riley and her decision to move from Sweden to England:
https://equalizersoccer.com/2018/09...l-top-league-possible-nwsl-return-wps-career/
You can see the URL includes a mention of WPS; I've always thought that souring Riley on the nature of the game in the US was probably the biggest player-related loss that came from the collapse of WPS, and even with the NWSL going on six years now, it's still an issue for her. I hope she does well at Chelsea and leads NZL out of the group stage in France next year!

 

Scotland: On Friday night, Hibs won 2-0 away at Forfar, and Glasgow City won 3-0 on Sunday at Stirling Uni. That gives Glasgow a +2 goal lead in the table.

SWPL 1 - four games to go
1 GlasgowC 17Pl 15W 2D 0L +53GD (60–7) 47pts
2 Hibernian 17Pl 15W 2D 0L +51GD (63–12) 47pts​

Glasgow City are home to Rangers and Celtic in upcoming games. Hibs might score more goals against weaker opposition away. But the big match is when the top 2 meet on October 21.

The Scottish Women's Cup takes over next Sunday (Sep 16), with the quarter-finals. One SWPL 2 club is guaranteed a semi-final place - St Johnstone or Motherwell.

At the bottom, Spartans stayed 2 points above Hamilton after their 2-2 draw. Meanwhile, the powerful 'Old Firm' clubs showed why they might as well not be in this division. They just don't care!

- https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45465408

As mentioned there, the big news in Scotland was the national team, as they qualified for the World Cup last week. The Forfar v Hibs match was the first time the Scottish Women's Premier League was live on TV, in a new contract with BBC Alba which also includes the World Cup.



Wales: The Welsh Premier Women's League (WPWL) has started. In the first 2 games, Cardiff City and Abergavenny won both, while the champions Cardiff Met dropped points to Port Talbot. No videos are up yet, but there is one of Cardiff City away at Watford in a friendly in England.

 

the Arsenal women have their own page on Facebook(where you find most of the English woso teams as compared to youtube). This should show the highights

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1918364514920181

Miedema only scored 4 league goals last all last season so starting of with a hat trick is indeed a great show! What helps Arsenal too is Kim Little(2 time NWSL mvp) looking like she's at 100%. She wasn't so spiffy lookin earlier this year when she just returned from an ACL.
Wouldn't mind if Bloodsworth switches back to her maiden name. Her name seems out of place in woso, might of been better suited for MMA!

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in other action; Man U 12, Aston Villa 0. What on earth are they doing playing in Div 2???

 

It's an eye-opening score, but it's also just one game, at least in league play. They might be good enough to be a lower-level team in Div 1 based on the small handful of games played across the country so far, but also based on those game they're not at the level of the top half of the Div 1 table. They lost at home to Reading 0-2, and while they beat Liverpool away 1-0, Arsenal absolutely embarrassed Liverpool 5-0, so ManU is definitely a ways beneath Arsenal as well. Also, remember that Aston Villa were the weakest Div 2 team from last year to still be in Div 2 this year, so it's not like they're tough competition to begin with.

 

their best player, Alex Greenwood, wasn't even in this slaughter. Though, at least Leah Galton got 90 min. I think they know they don't got the depth over the long season to take on the big 3 right now(& do to their rep, their ain' interested in being a mid tier squad

 

full Arsenal vs Liverpool game

 

Neil Redfearn has resigned as manager of Liverpool Women after just one game of the WSL season #LFC

— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) September 14, 2018

 

That's crazy, he'd only managed Liverpool in 2 competitive games.

Redfearn arrived 3 months ago (in June) from Doncaster Belles.

 

I know nothing more than you, but I figure that, after the 0-5 loss vs Arsenal, he felt like he didn't have a grasp on the team (probably he felt like the players didn't believe in his particular vision or like they didn't really want to follow his instructions or something of the kind). Of course, it's just a shot in the dark from me: it can easily turn out that he left for completely different reasons.

 

I read that Liverpool lost most of its players from last year's team--maybe a problem with the then-manager? Or money? Or both? Some of them were signed by ManU. In any case, apparently Liverpool had to restock most of the team and just doesn't have the talent this year be competitive. That may be why Redfearn left.

 

Ireland: The title race is open again, with 5 games to go. The 2017 champions Wexford are still favourites to retain their Women's National League (WNL) trophy, but they lost their unbeaten record at home to Dublin's Shelbourne:

Wexford (black) 2 - 3 Shelbourne (red/white)


Shelbourne are 3pts behind in 2nd place now. Peamount are in 3rd.

The WNL matches are returning this Saturday (22 Sep), more highlights are on the FAI's channel.


Northern Ireland: Linfield Ladies are about to wrap up another title in the Women's Premiership, but the leaders were given a tough game this week, when the 3rd-placed Cliftonville (in red) hosted Linfield (blue):




Scotland: The quarter-finals of the Scottish Women's Cup:

St Johnstone v Motherwell (video) was the battle of the division 2 clubs, and the away side got the win. That adds a Cup semi-final to Motherwell's successful promotion-winning season.

In other news,

Renfrew v Glasgow City: thrashing!

Spartans v Celtic: cupset!

EUHV v Hibs: wow that's just a field

In the semi-finals, the top dogs Glasgow City and Hibernian meet on Oct 14, and Spartans and Motherwell play in the other game. The matches are both at Forthbank Stadium in Stirling in a double-header.


In bizarre circumstances, Aberdeen are back in the relegation dogfight in SWPL 2. Because the club sent the 'wrong' computer file, a player was never registered and competed in several Aberdeen matches. Those have now been awarded 3-0 to their opponents – it erases 3 recent victories (v Hearts, Glasgow Girls and St Johnstone) and puts Aberdeen down to 8 points, level with Central Girls in last place.

 

here's highlights of West Ham vs Reading


here's the lineups for the game
https://us.women.soccerway.com/matc.../wsl/west-ham-united-lfc/reading-wfc/2872934/

must say very impressed by the rosters of both teams.

West Ham, they added the Swiss teen, Lehmann, a couple of emerging Dutch & Irish(possibly NT's for their respective countries) to go along with my faves, Julia Simic, & hot legs Rafferty, former Eng. NT, Flaherty & NZ standout Percival
(checkout Lehman in the vid, she's very fast!)

Reading on the other hand got Brooke Chaplin, a sharpshooter that would make most NT's(cept that England is sooo slow in moving up players). Genna Davison, who was my pick for league mvp a few years ago. Since then she apparently lost favor with Emma Hayes, but she looks like she's make a comeback; if you likes winger, then she's the girl for you & a hodge pot of other NT"s from around the UK; Potter, Furness, Harding/ another interesting pickup, Sophie Howard, a German born girl who's proven so good for the Scotish NT, that they've decided to turn into a 3 CB back to make room for her(since they got all ready the established, Corsie & Beattie)

this year the WPS is proving that their not a 3 team league, but the most balanced league in Europe. As previously watching the Bundesliga, I got to proclaim

England is the new Germany!(not sure if the English appreciate that though, lol)

 

WPS? X-D

Hey, if it means they win 6 EUROs in a row and 50% of the UWCL titles, I'm sure they won't complain!

 

yeah, but for the English to give up their self demeaning & loathing attitudes for good old German hard work/dependability, naw, will never happen/or at least not on an UK episode of Shameless!

but wow, Bristol ties the star studded Chelsea


btw, Siberan Thunder, when are FIFA rankings comingout again?(the Matildas better move up!)

 

Scotland: Glasgow City and Hibs are neck-and-neck at the top. This was the 4th-last weekend of the season.

Glasgow are chasing title 12 in a row! Could they break down Rangers?



Hibernian travelled to the last-placed Hamilton Academical, southeast of Glasgow. The Accies scored 2 goals to harm Hibs' goal difference:



- Match reports for Glasgow City v Rangers and Hamilton v Hibernian

Other results: Forfar 0 Celtic 1; Spartans 2 Stirling Uni 0
That takes Spartans (13pts) near to safety above Hamilton (8pts).

At the top, Glasgow have a +6 GD lead, which could be precious...

SWPL 1 - three games to go
1 GlasgowC 18Pl 16W 2D 0L +59GD (66–7) 50pts
2 Hibernian 18Pl 16W 2D 0L +53GD (67–14) 50pts​

Northern Ireland: The Cup final was played at the weekend at the national stadium, Windsor Park, with the top 2 Northern Irish clubs, and a role reversal of their league fortunes.

Glentoran got the Cup win, denying Linfield the 'treble' of 2018 trophies:



- Match report - https://shekicks.net/2018/09/23/gle...lly-win-electricireland-cup-with-late-double/ (Archived)


Ireland: In the space of four days, Wexford saw off both title rivals.

Wexford beat Peamount 2-1 on Saturday.

Just last night, they defeated Shelbourne 1-0 to take a six-point lead in the table, with Shelbourne 2nd - and only 3 rounds remaining in the season.

- https://wexfordtoday.com/2018/09/26/wexford-youths-go-six-points-clear/ (Archived)

 

here's the full Arsenal vs West Ham game. albeit, rather poor video quality, but high scoring game with van de Donk getting a hat trick


Arsenal is now at the top of the league standings. Last year's champs, Chelsea, lingering at 6th place with 3 draws & zero wins. Shame that Arsenal isn't in the Champions League. They did acquire Walti & Kemme, both are aggressive, tooth & nail type players. The one thing I might hold against them is very few English players as they continue to just two of them as compared to three Dutch