Match Preview: Bristol City away is next up for unbeaten Sunderland Ladies at 3pm today

Sunday 3rd October 2021

Bristol City Women v Sunderland AFC Ladies

FA Women’s Championship

Robins High Performance Centre, Clevedon Rd, Failand, Bristol, BS8 3TN

Kick-Off: 15:00

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Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Adults £10, Over 65s and Under 22s £8, Under 19s £6, Under 12s £3 and can be purchased from Bristol City’s ticketing website.

Travel info: Information on bus travel from Bristol city centre and car parking is available here.

Stream: The match will be streamed live and in full on the Bristol City YouTube Channel and the Bristol City Facebook page. Highlights and a full match replay available from Monday on the FA Player.

Podcast: Roker Report’s Lasses Podcast Live will be broadcast live on Twitter Spaces from 8-9pm BST on Monday. Just go to @RokerReport to listen in.

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The build-up...

Manager Mel Reay wasn’t too happy with the performance last Sunday at home to Lewes, and so she’ll be looking for a reaction from her team on Sunday. We could see a couple of changes to the team, but all the indications coming from the club are that the squad remains pretty-much injury free other than the long term absentee, England Under 18 international Emily Hutchinson.

Sunderland’s midfield general, Emma Kelly, gave a wide ranging interview to Phil Smith of the Sunderland Echo earlier in the week, and was looking forward to testing herself against a former WSL side:

We won’t look at other results and be complacent. You just have to look at the Championship this season, everyone is beating everyone.

Bristol City have recently been in the Super League, have some players who have played at that level which is really important. They’ll be a strong team and we’ve done our analysis on that. We’ll go into it very level-headed because as a group, we weren’t too happy with our performance last week and so there’s a lot to improve on.

Photo by Jacques Feeney/Getty Images

Bristol City have had a stuttering start to the season, and are rebuilding after their relegation from the top flight last season. They lost 2-0 at home against our local rivals Durham Wildcats last week, and manager Lauren Smith, speaking after the game, saw a lot of room for improvement on that performance ahead of the Sunderland match:

We’ve come back in other situations like this, but today we haven’tIt’s going to take a big week, an important week for us to make sure that we come back next weekend and put this right. The players know exactly what we need to do better and that’s the frustrating part of it, which you’ll feel from the players as well – the game just slipped away from us today

Bristol City’s Izzy Cook was interviewed for their club’s YouTube channel, and you can watch below.

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League form...

Sunderland AFC Ladies - W - W - D - D

Eight points from four games and lying only a point off top is still way beyond what we might have expected a couple of months ago. But it’s going to be important to get back to winning ways and create more chances.

Bristol City Women - L - W - D - L

A very mixed start to the season for Bristol following their relegation from the WSL at the end of the last campaign. With a new home at the club’s state-of-the-art development facility, and a talented young manager in Lauren Smith, they’ll surely be competitive as this season heats up.

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Head to head...

(All venues, all competitions)

• Played 5
• Sunderland Wins: 4
• Bristol City Wins: 1
• Sunderland Goals: 10
• Bristol City Goals: 5

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Last Time we met... at Bristol City

10 Feb 2018

Bristol City Women 1-2 Sunderland AFC Ladies

Lauren Hemp ‘15 Bridget Galloway ‘10, Rachel Pitman ‘58

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Played for Both... Grace McCatty...

This week’s played for both couldn’t be better in its timing, as Grace McCatty has just been named in the Her Football Hub team of the month for September. She has been excellent so far this season, and gave a terrific performance at home to Lewes. It also went a long way to helping the team to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. The centre half putting in a performance that was both rock solid and that of a leader.

McCatty spent 11 years at Bristol City (or Bristol Academy as they were then known). The 32 year old also made appearances in the UEFA Women’s Champions League during her time at the club, captaining the side in their famous 2014 win against Barcelona as they reached the Quarter Final. McCatty moved to Durham Women in the 2017/2018 season, but only made 5 appearances. She then moved to Sunderland in the 2018/2019 season.

The Gloucester born defender has been a regular for Sunderland and is a solid, competitive and calm defender. This no-nonsense approach to her play has made her very popular with fans and the quality she adds to the side can often be underestimated. She’d be a starter in most sides in the Women’s Championship and we’re very lucky to have her.

Photo by Stephen Pond - The FA/The FA via Getty Images