Continental Tyres Cup – Matchday 3 of 5 all the results, tables and gossip

by Andrew Crawshaw

The Continental Tyres Cup is the Women’s equivalent of the Carabao Cup.  It is a competition open to the 22 teams in the top two echelons of Women’s football, the WSL and the Championship.  Unlike the men’s competition this one sees there being a group stage prior to a knockout between the top two in each of the four groups.

The biggest news before the matches was the sudden resignation with immediate effect of the Liverpool manager Neil Redfern.  Neil was newly appointed in summer and oversaw the summer recruitment drive.  The Club Chief Executive had this to say on June 12 :-

“We are absolutely delighted to appoint Neil as the new Liverpool Ladies manager and have every faith in his ability to bring success to the Ladies team.

“Having spoken to Neil, I was really impressed by his sheer enthusiasm, desire and ambition to achieve great things for the club. He was the real outstanding candidate and we are all delighted to have him on board.”

The club had a disastrous start to the season losing to us by five goals to nil in their opening league match of the season last weekend as well as their opening Continental Tyres Cup game.  Their playing staff was also decimated and most of their best players left the club in summer.

In a shock move Neil resigned with immediate effect last Friday.  Their goalkeeping coach Chris Kirkland took charge for their weekend game.  Here is a link to a heartfelt piece by Jordan Keeble bemoaning the demise of her beloved club What The Hell Is Actually Happening With Liverpool FC Women?  Well worth a read as it raises a number of questions pertinent to the future of Women’s football.

Liverpool played Championship club Durham and drew 3 – 3 at the end of 90 minutes before winning the penalty shootout 5 – 4 to take their first 2 points of the competition

Here are the results from the four groups and the respective league tables.

Group 1 North

• Leicester City 0 – Aston Villa 1
• Sheffield United 0 – Birmingham City 2
• Bristol City 0 – Manchester City 3

The table – (NB the WSL clubs are shown in bold in all four tables, the Championship clubs are in normal font)

POS	TEAM	Pl	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Manchester City Women FC	3	3	0	0	7	0	8
2	Birmingham City Women FC	3	2	0	1	4	0	7
3	Bristol City Women FC	3	1	0	2	5	6	4
4	Sheffield United Women FC	3	1	0	2	3	6	3
5	Aston Villa Ladies FC	3	1	0	2	2	4	3
5	Leicester City Women FC	3	1	0	2	2	7	2

Read more at http://www.fawsl.com/matchesCup/

This group is going pretty much to form with Man City ahead of Birmingham City.  Bristol the third WSL team in the group in third place ahead of the three Championship clubs.

Group 2 North

Durham 3 – Liverpool 3 (Liverpool win 5 – 4 on penalties) Durham 1 point, Liverpool 2

Everton 3 – Reading 2

Table

POS	TEAM	Pl	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Reading FC Women	2	2	0	0	6	1	6
2	Durham Women FC	3	1	0	2	5	7	4
3	Manchester United Women FC	2	1	0	1	1	2	3
4	Everton Ladies FC	2	1	0	1	3	3	3
5	Liverpool FC Women	2	1	0	1	3	4	2

No I’ve no idea either how Reading are counted in a Northern group (or Bristol in Group 1 North for that matter) but it is no real surprise to see them heading the group.  Still surprising is the fact that the other WSL teams are at the foot of the table.  Although they lost on penalties the point they gained for the full time draw keeps Durham in second place ahead of Man United who didn’t have a game this week.

Group 1 South

• Brighton 3 – London Bees 1
• Crystal Palace 0 – Chelsea 4
• Yeovil 0 – Spurs 4

Table

POS	TEAM	Pl	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Chelsea FC Women	3	3	0	0	13	2	9
2	Tottenham Hotspur Ladies FC	3	2	0	1	7	3	6
3	Crystal Palace Ladies FC	3	2	0	1	2	5	5
4	Brighton & Hove Albion Women FC	3	1	0	2	6	6	4
5	London Bees FC	3	1	0	1	2	7	2
6	Yeovil Town Ladies FC	3	0	0	3	1	6	1

No surprise here with Chelsea showing their class as group leaders, Championship sides Spurs and Crystal Palace though are above the other two WSL clubs (Brighton in fourth and Yeovil rooted to the foot of the table and still unable to score goals). 

Yeovil do have a new striker signing Lee Burch who, they will hope, will quickly settle in and provide that missing spark.  She joined from Portsmouth FC Women who play in the National League South (the third tier of the women’s game so it will be a big step up for her).

Group 2 South

• Lewes 0 – Arsenal 9
• West Ham 4 – Millwall Lionesses 0

Table

POS	TEAM	Pl	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Arsenal Women	2	2	0	0	12	1	6
2	West Ham United Women FC	3	2	0	1	9	4	6
3	Lewes FC Women	3	1	0	2	6	13	3
4	Charlton Athletic Women FC	2	1	0	1	4	7	3
5	Millwall Lionesses FC	2	0	0	2	2	8	0

Again no surprise here, Arsenal are the class team of the group and that has shown in the two winning results against the other two sides who I thought would be fighting it out for second place.  West Ham now looking likely to progress as group runners up.

The next round of the competition is in the first week of December.  Arsenal kick things off on Thursday 6th at Borehamwood with a 19:30 start against Charlton.  The other matches are, by and large, on the Friday evening I believe.

If you can get to Borehamwood do come along, you are far more likely to see a striker scoring a hat-trick than you will at the Emirates on the Saturday.

If you can’t get to Borehamwood then do check out your local Women’s clubs – they all need support.  Going to a match will cost you next to nothing and you will find a family friendly atmosphere and you may well be surprised at the quality of some of the football you will see.

 

• Arsenal v Vorskla Poltava: the media is treating us with absolute contempt
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• Why Arsenal into the Champions League next season may not be the best option