Club Fact File: St Matthews Ladies

St Matthews Ladies FC play in the NIWFA Championship. They were Establised in 1993 and based in the Belfast, Northern Ireland. Rachel Rogan kindly answered the below questions:


St Matthews Ladies 

1) Club Nickname: St Matts


2) Ground: Mallusk Playing Fields

3) League Played In: NIWFA Championship

4) Head Coach: Roisin Conlon

5) Captain: Aine Flynn

6) Biggest Win: Beating Newry City 5-4. The first team to take points off them in five years.

7) Greatest Club Achievement: Doing the league and cup double.

8) Interesting Fact: St Matthews ended both Valley Rangers & Newry City's unbeaten league records.

You can find more information about the team on their website:

St Matthews Ladies

Champions League Draw

I haven’t updated my blog for a while but I thought it would be good to start again with the Champions League draw which was held yesterday.

8 teams remain in the competition, all looking to book a place in the final on 14 May 2015 in Berlin.  Wolfsburg will be aiming to retain the title for the third year in a row but their German counterparts Frankfurt will be aiming to become the first club to lift the trophy four times. 

There are 2 British teams remaining in the competition that will be eager to progress through to the semi-finals in April but they come against strong competition with Glasgow City meeting PSG and Bristol Academy taking on Frankfurt.   

Quarter-final draw (21/22 & 28/29 March)

1. FFC Frankfurt (GER) v Bristol Academy WFC (ENG)

VfL Wolfsburg (GER) v FC Rosengård (SWE)

Glasgow City FC (SCO) v Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

Linköpings FC (SWE) v Brøndby IF (DEN)

Semi-final draw (18/19 & 25/26 April)

Wolfsburg/Rosengård v Glasgow/Paris

Frankfurt/Bristol v Linköpings/Brøndby

Final (Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, Berlin): 18.00CET, 14 May

Winner semi-final 2 v Winner semi-final 1

Club Fact File - Rhyl & Prestatyn LFC

Rhyl & Prestatyn LFC were promoted to the Women’s Welsh Premier League last season.  They changed their name from Prestatyn Ladies & Girls following promotion and will be hoping for a successful campaign in the top flight.  

Tom Jamieson kindly took time out to answer the following questions on the team.

Rhyl & Prestatyn LFC 

1)      Club Nickname: Lillywhites

2)      Ground: Corbetts Sports stadium, Rhyl

3)      League Played In: Women’s Welsh Premier League 

4)      Head Coach: Mel Davies

5)      Captain: Joy Jamieson 

6)      Biggest Win: 21-0

7)      Greatest Club Achievement: Being Promoted to Welsh Premier league 2014-2015 season

8)      Interesting Fact: Players from Age 16-50 show that no matter the age, if you’re good enough you play for our team 

You can find more information about the team including their season fixtures on their website:

Rhyl & Prestatyn Ladies

Arsenal & Man City in Cup Final

Caretaker Manager Kelly Smith secured Arsenal’s win over Notts County to book their place in the Continental Cup Final.  Neither team could break the deadlock in the 90 minutes. In extra time Caroline Weir blasted a shot from 20 yards into the back of the net. Kelly Smith doubled the lead when she took a well-placed penalty to end the game 2-0.

 Arsenal will be looking to lift the Continental Cup for the fourth year in a row when they meet newcomers Manchester City in the cup final on 15^th October.  Toni Duggan scored the only goal against contenders for the league Chelsea to help Manchester City reach the final.  

Club Fact File - Warwick Ladies

Warwick Ladies start their season on Sunday 7^th September away to Kingsbury & Coleshill.  Not only do the ladies enjoy football but it would seem dance offs are popular too as Karen Ledsham explains below:

WARWICK LADIES

1) Club Nickname: WLFC

2) Ground: Warwickshire County Council Sports Ground

3) League Played In: Birmingham County Women's League, Division 2

4) Head Coach: Kim "Monks" Brown

5) Captain: We haven't chosen a captain for this season as of yet

6) Biggest Win: 7-1

7) Greatest Club Achievement: Being able to create a team where by under 16's can carry on playing with the same club they have been since a young age. 

8) Interesting Fact: Our club secretary and team coach have the best dance offs.

You can find more information about the team including their season fixtures on their website:
Warwick Ladies

Club Fact File - Blackburn Rovers Ladies

Blackburn Rovers kick off the WPL season against Huddersfield Town on Saturday 24^th August (KO: 2pm).  

In what is a brand new feature for my blog, Head Coach Gemma Donnelly kindly answered the following questions about the club.

BLACKBURN ROVERS

1) Club Nickname: Rovers

2) Ground: The WEC Ground, AFC Darwen

3) League Played In: FAWPL (Northern)

4) Head Coach: Gemma Donnelly

5) Captain: Amie Fleming

6) Greatest Club Achievement: Receiving two consecutive team of the round awards in the FA Cup (no other team have achieved this)

7) Interesting Fact: Katie Anderton, who has been a loyal servant to Blackburn Rovers, has scored over 200 competitive league, cup and county cup goals for the club spanning over 7 seasons.

You can find more information about the team including their season fixtures on their website:

Rovers Ladies Website

Champions League Qualifying Round Ends

The Qualifying Rounds of the Champions League have now been completed and the 32 teams have now been decided for the first round.   Teams had been divided into qualifying groups where the winners went through to join the 22 automatic entry teams and then two of the best third place teams also qualified for the draw on the 22nd of August. 

Glasgow City FC (Scotland), Raheny United FC (Ireland), FC Zürich Frauen (Switzerland), MTK Hungária FC (Hungary) , ŽNK Osijek (Croatia), Apollon Ladies FC (Cyprus), KKPK Medyk Konin (Poland) and Clube Atlético Ouriense went through along with the two best runners up who were Lithuanian side Gintra Universitetas and ŽNK Pomurje from Slovenia.

Glasgow City join WSL teams Bristol Academy and Liverpool Ladies, along with Ireland’s WNL champions Raheny United.

The following teams are the 22 automatic entrants:

1	Olympique Lyonnais	France	12	WFC Zvezda-2005	Russia
2	VfL Wolfsburg	Germany	13	FC Barcelona	Spain
3	ASD Torres Calcio Femminile	Italy	14	Bristol Academy WFC	England
4	FC Rosengård	Sweden	15	Stabæk Fotball	Norway
5	Fortuna Hjørring	Denmark	16	Liverpool Ladies FC	England
6	FFC Frankfurt	Germany	17	FC Ryazan	Russia
7	NÖSV Neulengbach	Austria	18	FC BIIK-Kazygurt	Kazakhstan
8	Brøndby IF	Denmark	19	Brescia Femminile	Italy
9	AC Sparta Praha	Czech Rep	20	FC Twente '65	Netherlands
10	Linköpings FC	Sweden	21	SK Slavia Praha	Czech Rep
11	Paris Saint-Germain	France	22	Stjarnan	Iceland

    

WSL Back In Action

The WSL kicked off again at the weekend after a short break which saw Arsenal and Oxford United collecting their first wins of the season.

Saturday saw 2 games in the WSL 2 with Reading beating Aston Villa 3-1 and Sunderland winning 2-0 against newcomers Yeovil Town which puts them top of the WSL 2 table.

The other WSL 3 games were played on Sunday afternoon.  The Millwall Lionesses and Donny Belles played out a 0-0 draw.  Durham lost 2-1 at home to Oxford United while the spectators at The Hive were entertained with a 9 goal thriller London Bees losing  5-4 to Watford.  Midfielder Kate Natkiel bagged a hat trick for Watford in this fixture.

It was a great weekend for women’s football fans like me who live too far away to attend games as 2 of the WSL 1 games were live on BT Sport.  Arsenal got their first win of the campaign with a win over the champions Liverpool.  Casey Stoney headed in the only goal of the game in the 55^th minute.

The second game at the Select Stadium saw Everton take on Chelsea.  Nikita Parris and Eniola Aluko had the team’s level until Chelsea’s new signing Portuguese striker Ana Borges came on as a sub and bagged the winner for the London side.

In the other WSL 1 fixture, Birmingham beat Manchester City 2-0 with goals from Kirsty Linnett and Kerys Harrop keeping them top of the table with an unbeaten record in the league so far.

Arsenal Ladies Retain FA Cup

Arsenal lifted the FA Cup for the 13th time on Sunday after beating Everton 2-0 at Milton Keynes.  It was manager Shelly Kerr’s last game in charge following her resignation last week and while her team may be bottom of the WSL 1 they certainly didn’t look like a team that will be involved in the relegation battle at the end of the season.

Captain Kelly Smith fired a free kick from outside the box straight past Rachel Brown-Finnis to put the Gunners in the lead. Smith’s experience showed and she remained influential throughout the game, later setting up Japanese star Yukari Kinga to make it 2-0.

Everton did have a few attempts on goal but Arsenal dominated this match and their determination paid off.  Rachel Yankey, who lifted her 11th FA Cup, hit the post and Alex Scott forced Brown-Finnis to pull off an excellent save.

Danielle Carter arguable deserved a goal after her many attempts to find the back of the net but it just wasn’t her day.

After a number of players left Arsenal before the start of the season and a new manager on their way, this is both an exciting and interesting period for England’s most successful women’s football club. This FA Cup could well be the turning point this season.

*Image taken from arsenal.com/ladies

Weekend Round Up - England & Scotland

The FAWSL 1 was back in action at the weekend and Toni Duggan helped secure Manchester City’s first points in the campaign when they beat Arsenal 1-0.  Birmingham City also took all 3 points by winning 2-1 against Chelsea. 

Notts County and Liverpool remained on the same points and joint top of the table by holding out to a 0-0 draw in Nottingham.  Everton and Bristol Academy also took away a point each from their game with a 1-1 draw.

Home teams dominated in the FAWSL 2 at the weekend.  Doncaster Belles and Sunderland continued their winning form with the Belles beating Watford 2-0 and Sunderland winning 1-0 against London Bees.

The league’s top scorer Fran Kirby added a hat trick with Lois Roche scoring the other goal, as Reading took all 3 points against Durham in a comprehensive 4-0 victory.

The league’s top scorer Fran Kirby added a hat trick with Lois Roche scoring the other goal, as Reading took all 3 points against Durham in a comprehensive 4-0 victory.

The Scottish Cup fixtures were played yesterday along with the SWPL.  In the SWPL Glasgow City continued their unbeaten run at the top of the table by finding the back of the net 9 times against Hutchinson Vale. Hibernian also scored 9 goals in their 9-1 victory over Buchan.

Another high tally on the goal sheet went to Spartans who managed an impressive 11-0 victory over Inverness

In the other results Aberdeen beat Forfar Farmington 7-2, Celtic won 8-1 against Queens Park and Rangers beat Hamilton 2-0. 

There were some impressive results in the Scottish Cup too with an average of 9.2 goals in the 19 games that were played.  The result of the weekend goes to Cowdenbeath who beat Fairfield 32-0.  The results of the Scottish Cup are below:

Hearts	8	Kemnay	1
Motherwell	3	Claremount	1
Aberdeen Reserves	4	Edinburgh Caledonia	0
Hibernian Development	7	Hamilton Caledonian	0
Hearts Development	7	Turriff United	0
Livingston	1	Glasgow Girls	6
Edinburgh South	4	Queen of the South	2
Elgin City	1	Falkirk Ladies	12
Stonehaven	8	Caithness Ladies	1
Fairfield	0	Cowdenbeath	32
Falkirk FC	0	Falkirk Ladies Reserves	4
Seton Ladies	0	Boroughmuir Thistle	14
Dundee City	3	Renfrew	4
Dunfermline Athletic	17	Boroughmuir Jags	0
Spartans Reserves	12	Forfar Farmington Ladies	0
Riverside	3	Stranraer	0
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy	0	Jeanfield Swifts	10
Mill United	4	East Fife	2
Dee Ladies	1	Murieston United	3