Birmingham City Women 2, Liverpool Women 0: No Heroics This Time

Despite an energetic fight in the second half, things ended poorly.

Sometimes things just don’t go your way, and despite the decent momentum that Liverpool Women have been building following... well, everything this season, they were unable to make something good happen on Sunday against Birmingham City. You start to run out of ways to say “they played well but still lost” after a while, to be honest, and that’s only on my side of things.

Birmingham, and Ellen White specifically, came out firing on all cylinders this afternoon and pushed Liverpool early on. Leighanne Robe made an excellent clearance off the line around the 15 minute mark, and Niamh Fahey and Sophie Bradley-Auckland scrambling to clear crosses just a few minutes before that. Birmingham took advantage of the building chaos at the back with their first goal at 19 minutes, unfortunately. Ellen White was able to convert off a rebound and send it home to make things 1-0 to the home side.

It would hardly be ten minutes later before White secured her brace and two goals for Birmingham, getting a head on a ball from Chloe Arthur and sending it past Fran Kitching.

From there it was just catch up, and thankfully for Liverpool both goals were early so they had plenty of time. Birmingham did well to completely shut down Liverpool’s attack through the rest of the first half, though, and the Reds were behind at halftime.

Liverpool came back out ready for a fight at the start of the second half, making one change by bringing on Niamh Charles for Yana Daniels. Rinsola Babajide made a stunning run down the right to set up Courtney Sweetman-Kirk early into the second half, only for her effort to go just wide of the goal. Liverpool won a free kick shortly after as well and Christie Murray swung it in for Sweetman-Kirk to pick up but Birmingham managed to clear it quickly.

It seems the half was just what the women needed to put their attacking boots back on, with Babajide working hard down her right flank to set up Laura Coombs, only to get flagged for offside. Christie Murray sends a gorgeous ball over the top towards Sweetman-Kirk, only for that one to go wide as well (did they move the goals a few inches?) in the 67th minute. Murray and Babajide were doing well to set up the attackers but unfortunately finishing wasn’t happening today, with Murray herself going in with a low shot towards goal but just barely missing.

Manager Vicky Jepson (I love saying that, still) brought on Ashley Hodson around the 82nd minute to replace Sweetman-Kirk but even Hodson was unable to find the back of the net. Thankfully Fran Kitching was able to deny Ellen White a hat trick by making a fingertips save at the 85th minute, but by then there was nothing else Liverpool could do.

The game ended 2-0 and Liverpool still sit 8th, thankfully out of relegation ahead of their last match of the season - a Merseyside Derby, naturally, on May 11th at Prenton Park. If you’d like to destress before the end of the Premier League season and the men’s final match against Wolves, the Women could use all the support they can get. If you’re also in the area and know a girl who wants to play, the Women are hosting open Academy trials in June!

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com