London City Lionesses 1-2 Sheffield United
A fourth straight win for the Blades as they finish the season strongly
United continued their superb end to the season with a fourth consecutive win, beating London City Lionesses 2-1 in Dartford. Sophie Barker looked to have scored her first of the season (later ruled an own goal), and Izzy Goodwin bagged her 15th – although the Blades’ top-scorer was taken off at half-time with injury.
That moment aside, this was another good afternoon for United who were in much greater control of this game than the final scoreline suggests. The Blades outshot their hosts 18-5 and would have been out of sight by half-time but for a couple of excellent saves from Grace Moloney in the London City goal.
There was a tough selection decision for Luke Turner with Jodie Hutton available again after suspension, but the interim manager opted to keep with largely the same side that put five past Reading last week. Sophie Haywood for the injured Jess Sigsworth was the only change, meaning United stuck with the back four that has proved so solid in recent weeks:
Turner’s call worked, as United offered a constant threat down their left side even with the powerful running of Hutton kept in reserve. Much of that comes down to Ash Hodson who is stringing together a run of really good performances, of which this was possibly the best of the lot. Hodson was constantly involved in the Blades’ attacks with some neat link-up with Goodwin, Charlotte Newsham and Bex Rayner in particular, and had a big hand in United’s second goal.
For the second week running United controlled much of the ball in the first half and racked up the corners and chances. Within 10 minutes the Blades took the lead as Rayner slipped a first-time pass into Goodwin’s feet. The United striker turned inside her marker and the ball bobbled to captain Sophie Barker who stabbed it across goal and saw it turned home by Lionesses’ defender Emma Mukandi.
Minutes later, Ella Kinzett won a 50/50 on the edge of the box and found Goodwin on the penalty spot. With her back to goal, Goodwin managed to spin and hook a fierce high shot only for Moloney to pull off a fantastic save.
She wasn’t to be denied for long, though, as Rayner swooped onto a loose ball in the centre circle and put Hodson in on goal. She slid a good shot across Moloney who again saved well, but this time Goodwin was on hand to sweep home the rebound. It made it eight goals in her last seven league games.
London City were fortunate to still be in the game at half-time, as Rayner won the ball high up the pitch, Goodwin released Haywood but her strike partner slid a shot inches past the far post. Rayner then found Goodwin’s head from a corner but Moloney pushed it away and managed to fall on the rebound.
Seconds before the half-time whistle, Goodwin chased a ball to the byline and appeared to twist her ankle as she went off the end of the pitch. She was replaced by youngster Eva Butler at half-time, and fingers crossed that it’s nothing too serious for a player who – at the very least – deserves to finish out the season and hopefully bag the Championship’s Golden Boot award (she remains tied with Palace’s Elise Hughes, and both now have the same amount of assists).
Unsurprisingly the Blades were less of a threat in the second half without their star striker, though Newsham did have a decent chance to make it 3-0 but Moloney got down well to save. Invested as I am in Goodwin scoring more goals for the Blades, it was also good to get an extended look at Butler, who has been a regular scorer for the U21s this year but has only made cameos from the bench for the seniors so far. She showed off a couple of nice moments of good control and dribbling that had the London City defenders backpedalling.
The hosts pulled one back with a neat move on 68 minutes, as Finnish striker Lotta Lindstrom – who’d only been on the pitch for seven minutes – wasn’t tracked by United’s centre-backs and she clipped her shot past Fran Stenson, who’d otherwise had very little to do.
You could be forgiven for expecting this to be the cue for panic stations for the Blades – a comfortable lead halved; their key player sidelined – but in reality the rest of the game was pretty comfortable. Hodson almost sneaked a shot in at the near post and Rayner whistled a dipping freekick a couple of feet over the bar, while London City had little threat apart from long throws into a packed penalty area that United easily dealt with.
Hutton came on for the excellent Hodson after 78 minutes and almost sealed the game with a brilliant driven freekick that Haywood couldn’t quite turn goalwards. Haywood came off for Tamara Wilcock as the game entered six minutes of stoppage time, and United saw off any lingering London City threat to ease to another win.
Those three points mean that the lowest United can finish this season is 7th, with an outside shot of finishing 5th. The last two teams on the fixture list are the sides that sit either side of them, Birmingham and Blackburn, although first up it’s an international break.
Speaking of, congrats to both Tara Bourne and Fran Stenson on their latest call-ups to the England U23s – Bourne has been a regular in that squad but this is a significant moment for Stenson who was added to the last squad as an injury replacement. This time she’s in the initial call-up outright. It’s a deserved reward for both her and Bourne who have played so well in the last few weeks and seen United’s defence tighten up.
Left-back Fallon Connolly-Jackson was also called up to the Scotland U19s, and started yesterday in a 10-0 win over Finland in their qualifying campaign for the Women’s U19 Euros.
Finally this week, although United are quite comfortably assured of a midtable finish, I wanted to highlight the drama around the rest of the Women’s Championship heading into the final two matchdays (a few teams have three to play). At the top, Sunderland and Palace are separated by just one point, and none of Southampton, Charlton or Birmingham are out of the race for that precious WSL promotion spot yet.
I’ll be at the Lane on April 28th watching United play Blackburn, but elsewhere it’s Palace v Sunderland on the final day of the season for what looks likely to be a promotion playoff. At the bottom, Watford and Lewes still have hope of survival while Reading and Durham aren’t yet safe – Watford host the Royals on the final day of the season in what could still be a win-and-stay-in match.
