White delighted to be back on the goal trail again for City
It has been three months since Ellen White grabbed her last goal, at the World Cup semi-final in Lyon, fuelling false hopes that England might make it to their first World Cup final. Yesterday, that tournament’s joint top goalscorer finally got back to scoring ways, after her knee surgery, in Manchester City’s Group C Continental Cup tie against Birmingham City, the club she left in the summer, helping her new team to a 2-1 win at the Academy Stadium.
“I didn’t want to come off, I wanted to stay on forever,” said White. “I’m just all-out. I think the medical staff hate me for that. I’m all or nothing, so that’s probably why they’ve been holding me back with reins. I’m obviously delighted to have scored. Hopefully this is the first of many for the team.”
Last year’s Continental Cup winners will be pleased to have recorded a win after their worst run of defeats since May 2015, being knocked out of the Champions League, losing to Manchester rivals United and being beaten by Arsenal, who pipped them to the Women’s Super League title last season.
City manager Nick Cushing still thinks there is much to improve on in an increasingly competitive women’s game.
“We’re missing chances, we’re not really threatening the goal and for the players it’s a big result – but I always thought we’d win,” Cushing said.
“The players have learnt that the women’s game is improving so much that the margin for success is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. I probably questioned their ability to fight hard in difficult moments. I asked them to show their resilience today.”
Arsenal, who Manchester City are likely to be battling for at least one trophy this season, suffered a shock loss in Group B against
Brighton & Hove Albion, going down 4-2 in a penalty shoot out after a 0-0 draw.
Brighton have now held both of the top two teams in the Women’s Super League, despite being 11th in the table. Arsenal, who beat Brighton 4-0 earlier in the season, had gone into the game confident after a 13-2 aggregate win last week to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Over at the Madejski Stadium, for the second of four games at the home of the Reading men’s team before the end of the calendar year, there was another disappointing crowd.
There were hopes that this Group D tie against WSL side West Ham United would draw more than the 799 who attended the last game at the Madejski but only 877 showed up to watch the home side lose 1-0.
There was a triumph for the Championship in Group A where Aston Villa beat WSL side Liverpool 2-0. Villa sit at the top of Division Two, while Liverpool, whose form has dipped since they won the WSL in 2013 and 2014, have yet to win in the top tier.
Villa will hope that a victory against a WSL side will enhance their hopes of promotion for next season.