Women’s football Relegation-haunted Robins sunk by Spurs
BETHANY England scored her first Women’s Super League goal of the season to earn Tottenham victory over bottom side Bristol City at Ashton Gate.
England fired the visitors in front after two minutes when she collected Grace Clinton’s searching pass, cut inside two players and rifled home left-footed into the near post.
Robert Vilahamn’s side should have won more comfortably but were guilty of missing a hatful of chances to put the result beyond doubt. Celin Bizet twice went close in a matter of minutes, while Jessica Naz missed the target when well placed inside the area shortly before half-time.
In the second half, Drew Spence saw a stinging effort tipped over by Robins goalkeeper Fran Bentley, who was playing her first game since the opening weekend of the season after recovering from injury.
Substitute Wang Shuang also hit the bar with a header from Eveliina Summanen’s corner.
Tottenham remain sixth, but are now just three points behind Manchester United in fifth. City are six points adrift of safety after a 13th defeat from their 17 league games this season.
After flirting with relegation last season Tottenham look certain to improve on their ninth-place finish from 2022-23.
They also have an FA Cup semifinal against Leicester to look forward to next month.
The Robins have endured a miserable season so far and set two more unhappy milestones after this latest defeat.
Lauren Smith’s side have now lost their last 11 WSL games, equalling the record set by Yeovil Town between 2017 and 2018. They are also just the second team to lose their first eight home games of a campaign after Doncaster Rover Belles in 2016. They did show spirit and resilience to recover from going a goal down so early, but the narrow scoreline was more down to poor Spurs finishing.
» This report first appeared on www.bbc.co.uk/sport.