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Southampton FC Women

Dr Who?

By Dr Who?,
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stevegrant

stevegrant

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, saintquin said:

Shame because looking at the stats (I know they don't tell the whole story) seemed like it was quite an even game with our girls getting a healthy 18 shots in! 

Looked like it was a much-changed lineup with an intention of giving fringe players some more game time. Coventry are a team who we probably should have been beating, really, given the respective resources. Fair to say it'll be a hell of a lot tougher against WSL sides Reading and Spurs in the other group games!

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JRM

JRM

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, Barsiem said:

Fyi for all interested - our next game (Sun 30th Oct at 12pm) can be watched live on the FA Player.  Available as an app or via web

It's also at St Mary's, end of the half term holidays so would imagine a few will take the kids along 

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wooley7

wooley7

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Great start to the season. Third on goal difference is amazing. If I had one concern it would be goals. We are solid at the back and have had plenty of clean sheets but we have only scored 8 goals in 7 games.

Bristol City looked good in the game at Ashton Gate and you would have picked them over as as the most likely team to get promotion despite the 1-1. If we can find a few more goals maybe we could challenge them.

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JRM

JRM

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4 hours ago, cloggy saint said:

Just one I think, which seems a bit harsh.

Just one up and one down, it's protectionist for the top tier and hardly encourages investment and mobility up the leagues. As things stand Bristol City are 5 points clear at the top and Coventry United are bottom having lost 7 from 7 , not saying it will happen but if Bristol pull away you could have promotion and relegation sorted with nothing for the rest to play for. Should have two up with first promoted automatically and then 4 teams in a play off keep the season interesting for fans. 

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Doctoroncall

Doctoroncall

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On 30/10/2022 at 19:27, JRM said:

Just one up and one down, it's protectionist for the top tier and hardly encourages investment and mobility up the leagues. As things stand Bristol City are 5 points clear at the top and Coventry United are bottom having lost 7 from 7 , not saying it will happen but if Bristol pull away you could have promotion and relegation sorted with nothing for the rest to play for. Should have two up with first promoted automatically and then 4 teams in a play off keep the season interesting for fans. 

Maybe that will come later when teams of the championship and below have been given a chance to have the right structures in place, just like the League two with the national league below in the mens game.

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JRM

JRM

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55 minutes ago, Doctoroncall said:

Maybe that will come later when teams of the championship and below have been given a chance to have the right structures in place, just like the League two with the national league below in the mens game.

I don't think that's the intention, when they allowed Man Utd to create a women's team and dropped them straight into the top tier the plan was set,  get as many big names in top division as possible and piggyback on their existing fan bases. The divisions are small with only 12 in each why not expand the top division? 

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St Louis

St Louis

Posted
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1 hour ago, JRM said:

I don't think that's the intention, when they allowed Man Utd to create a women's team and dropped them straight into the top tier the plan was set,  get as many big names in top division as possible and piggyback on their existing fan bases. 

I didnt think they did? I thought they applied and went into the newly formed Championship?

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stevegrant

stevegrant

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3 minutes ago, St Louis said:

I didnt think they did? I thought they applied and went into the newly formed Championship?

Correct, but I suspect it was more a realisation that even a club like Man United couldn't be granted a WSL license and expect to compete in the first season - not even sure they got promoted at the first time of asking. United got the license ahead of us based on assumed spending because they're a big club and they would naturally be able to attract big crowds and therefore use that revenue to drive growth, whereas what ended up happening was that after they got promoted, the club basically left the women's team to rot, with constant complaints about poor facilities, a lack of kit and equipment, a lack of duty of care, etc, to the extent that the manager walked away after that first season.

Meanwhile, we have invested the money that we said we'd invest during that application. In truth, perhaps building from lower down has allowed the club to build up a bit of momentum - we all want to see a successful team that represents the club, whichever team it is, so if we'd started in the Championship and just bobbed around at a low level there, perhaps we wouldn't have what appears to be the well-oiled machine with excellent attendances we have now.

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stevegrant

stevegrant

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Goals have been the only thing really lacking so far this season, good to see them finally being a bit more ruthless, albeit against comfortably the weakest team in the division. They'll need that cutting edge against the better teams in this division if they want to go up again.

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suewhistle

suewhistle

Posted
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2 hours ago, JRM said:

The divisions are small with only 12 in each why not expand the top division? 

Indeed! At grassroots level where divisions are that size it is because of the difficulty of fulfilling fixtures with dodgy pitches and no opportunity of playing midweek as the players have other commitments. At this level with contract players and non-council pitches that difficulty doesn't apply.

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wooley7

wooley7

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Good performance in the first half, though we arrived late and missed the first goal.  Total class apart from Coventry. Had plenty of other chances and really should have scored more.

Coventry players got in a huddle after the third goal and had a good word with themselves! We controlled the game second half but Coventry were a lot tighter at the back though still offered little threat going forward. Saints made a number of subs but there was little change to their dominance.  

Commented earlier in this thread that I was worried about our lack of goals so great to get 3 and Wilkinson with a hat trick.

2nd in the table is a great start, I believe the team can keep improving through the season, lots of new players and lots of young players in a new league.

My daughters 7th Saints game and she has yet to see us lose. 3 mens games, all draws and 3 wins and a draw for the women.

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Charlie Mealings

Charlie Mealings

Posted
Posted

If any of you are interested, I wrote about Saints Women, how weird it is that men's alcohol rules apply to the women's game for no clear reason, and how it's a banging matchday.

https://cmealings.substack.com/p/womens-football-and-the-beers

Also, to answer to some earlier posts, several of the Championship games are being broadcast on the FA Player app and website - though it's annoyingly unclear which ones.

AND btw, the best explainer I'm aware of about the confusing history of the womens' teams in Southampton is this piece by Carl Anka in 2019:

https://theathletic.com/1176445/2019/09/06/southampton-isnt-a-one-club-city-after-all/

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Saint_clark

Saint_clark

Posted
Posted
On 10/11/2022 at 18:20, Charlie Mealings said:

 

Also, to answer to some earlier posts, several of the Championship games are being broadcast on the FA Player app and website - though it's annoyingly unclear which ones.

 

If you use this website; 

Live Football On TV | Football On Television In The UK (live-footballontv.com)

Then it does show womens games that are on the FA player, but obviously it only shows 7 days in advance. 

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