London City Lionesses have secured promotion to the Women’s Super League, winning the Barclays Women’s Championship with a 2-2 against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on the final day of a thrilling season.
An exciting, tense game saw the London outfit tested by the Birmingham hosts. The Blues valiantly clawed their way back from 2-0 behind, but they could not find the victory they needed to overtake the eventual champions.
Like the league itself, this game went down to the wire. The Halfway Line breaks down the key details from the afternoon’s pivotal clash.
The Lineups
BIR: Franch; McKenna, Cooke, Holloway, Lawley; Murray, Van Egmond; Yu-Ri, Magie, Lee; Fuso
LON: Orman; Neville, Goldie, Imuran, Kumagai; Perez, Roddar; Jakobsson, Asllani, Boye-Hlorkah; Goodwin
The Action
The first big chance of the afternoon belonged to Birmingham City. Simone Magill picked out Lee Geum-Min in the box, who sent her shot wide. London City responded, eventually winning a corner to be well-delivered by Swedish national team captain Kosovare Asllani. It would be the same again just a couple of minutes later.
Isobel Goodwin proved a difficult forward for the Blues to contain, taking every opportunity to run at Adrianna Franch, before attacking outlet Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah made a huge goal-line clearance when Australian Emily Van Egmond sent a promising header goalwards.
Goodwin soon thought she had deservingly found the opener for the visitors, but the offside flag has been raised against her efforts. The hosts found it within them to retaliate, with key attacker Ivana Fuso driving up the pitch to find Lee, who this time had her shot saved by Emily Orman.
Jocelyn Prêcheur’s side continued to threaten in the final third, but it would not yet fall right for them. Another impressive goal-line clearance was made by Rebecca Holloway to deny the guests their first.
London City made one change at the break, swapping Arsenal loanee Teyah Goldie for experienced Republic of Ireland international Megan Campbell, after the former experienced some discomfort in her knee during the opening half.
Starting the second half with a bang, the Championship’s top goalscorer, Goodwin, scored a colossal goal for London City in the 46th minute. The striker linked up with Asllani before breaking forward, avoiding her marker, and firing a beautiful curling finish into the back of the net from some distance.
The close contest continued, but Birmingham City started to look somewhat rattled after conceding. Choe Yu-Ri broke down the right flank, the ball eventually falling to Christie Harrison-Murray before being saved by Orman.
Amy Merricks opted to swap Yu-Ri and Fuso for Ava Baker and Lucy Quinn not long after, in the hope of reinvigorating her outfit’s frontline. The Blues now needed two goals in front of their vocal home crowd to be in with a chance at winning the title, and gaining promotion upon the final whistle.
London City began to look dominant, winning yet another corner against their midlands hosts. Boye-Hlorkah got her head to another stunning delivery, making the most of a chance to double the advantage of the table-toppers.
The home side felt hard done by when Lee was not awarded a penalty after being brought down in the box by Grace Neville. Frustrations began to grow for Merricks’ Birmingham side, as they knew defensive lapses had quickly become costly.
However, a Holloway cross was too much for Prêcheur’s side to handle, and Van Egmond was quick to head it over the line before it could be cleared. Back in the game, the hosts had a new lease of life. Looking to play the direct, attacking football their guests had used to plague them thus far in the fixture, a solo Magill attempt was deflected away by Campbell before a pause in play.
Momentum then swung in the favour of the Blues, with substitutes Quinn and Baker both making their mark. Merricks decided to make further changes, replacing Gemma Lawley and Van Egmond with Ashanti Akpan and Cho So-Hyun. The home crowd was then the loudest it had been all afternoon, and in response, London City brought on Charlene Meyong and Freya Godfrey for Maria Perez and Boye-Hlorkah.
Franch was soon called to parry over another strong strike from Goodwin after the 22-year-old did well to run onto a ball through the middle of the park. Merricks made another change following yet another London City Corner, as the Blues desperately looked to counter. The head coach brought on Louise Quinn to replace Rebecca McKenna, a women’s football great set to retire after this momentous match.
Suddenly having gone up a gear, Birmingham City were level. Lucy Quinn sent in a pinpoint cross, which Cho volleyed toward the top right corner with exceptional prowess. A leveller would not be enough, though. The Blues needed another goal to leapfrog London City on the title chase.
Meyong gave away a free kick to Birmingham in a dangerous area as London City looked to pack the box. The hosts could not convert, going on to force only a save by Orman. Merricks’ side continued to push, both of these sides on the brink of success.
Having scored the most goals from set pieces across the league, the Blues searched eagerly for their moment. Pile on the pressure though they did, London City could not quite be undone, and even came close to scoring a wild third goal in the dying moments of this thrilling game.
Revolutionary London City Lionesses draw with resilient Birmingham City, but they lift the Championship trophy, and earn their spot to compete in the WSL next season.
