Women’s football Bruce sees red as Robins suffer surprise defeat

BRISTOL City Women’s Championship promotion bid could go to the wire as they were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by struggling Sheffield United at the Robin High Performance Centre with Vicky Bruce sent off in the second half for a professional foul.

Courtney Sweetman-Kirk’s firsthalf finish earned the Blades an impressive 1-0 win against the Championship leaders, with just three points now separating the Robins and second-placed London City Lionesses and three games remaining.

The hosts would have gone into next weekend’s fixture at Sunderland with an outside chance of sealing promotion with a win but are now looking over their shoulders after the latest twist in an absorbing title race.

City travel to second-bottom Sunderland before hosting Charlton at Ashton Gate and then close out the season at Birmingham City, who still have an outside chance of promotion themselves, providing they win all their remaining fixtures. London City, meanwhile, have trips to Southampton and Blackburn Rovers before a home date with lowly Coventry United.

“We said it was going to be a battle,” City head coach Lauren Smith said. “We tried to play some good football and create chances in the second half but unfortunately it was a cliche of a game of two halves where we haven’t done enough in the first half and had to throw everything at it in the second but not come out with the result.

“I thought our response to the red card as a team was excellent. We knew we had to pick up the slack from having one less and I couldn’t have been prouder of their reaction to that. We probably had more chances with 10 players than we did with 11. It was gutsy.”

City started strongly with Rachel Furness calling Blades ‘keeper Fran Stenson into action after 20 minutes, before Brooke Aspin flashed a header wide from a corner.

Sweetman-Kirk then netted the game’s only goal just minutes later, finishing off a rapid Blades counter attack after superb work from Mia Enderby. It was almost two just before the break as youngster Enderby surged into the box, but her effort was high of the target.

Enderby was then involved in the key moment of the second half, as

Vicky Bruce was dismissed for bringing down the teenager when through on goal. City pushed for an equaliser, Gracie Pearse coming closest with a header that hit the crossbar ten minutes from time. Grace Clinton then thought she had the equalised at the death only to see her effort ruled out for offside, as the Robins fell to just their third defeat of the season.

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