shahanshahan

Great to see the club & FirstBus announce matchday bus services for home games at the Robins High Performance Centre, giving fans who don't drive more chances to attend

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/city-women-matchday-bus-service-launched/

Tickets on sale for the first home league games. £7 advance/£10 on the day for adults.

Interesting things to point out:

All kick offs are 3pm, like they were at Stoke Gifford.

Durham game is midday kick off, which would be fun for anyone travelling down that day.

Blackburn game will be at Ashton Gate...

Emma Bissell has announced on her Instagram she has moved to the United States to play for Florida State University.

Would have thought she'd stay, but the US college system is great for a lot of women's footballers. Best of luck to her

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/johnson-joins-city-women-ranks/

Great signing! Melissa Johnson scored a fair few goals while at Sheffield United. Hoping she can repeat the same for us at City

First game of the season away against Crystal Palace confirmed as kicking off on Sunday 29/08/2021 at 2pm, live on FA Player.

Looks like not all Championship games will be broadcast live on the FA Player. Hoping Robins TV would be able to broadcast if possible, but at the same time, will encourage fans who can to attend games

19 hours ago, shahanshahan said:

BBC Sport journalist Emma Sanders has tweeted hinting that City women may sign even more players.
Interesting to see Sophie Whitehouse join as goalkeeper to replace Baggaley (one Sophie for another!?)

Sophie Whitehouse officially announced today, as well as Jennifer Foster being new assistant head coach.

Very surprised about Fran Bentley joining us as well!

BBC Sport journalist Emma Sanders has tweeted hinting that City women may sign even more players.
Interesting to see Sophie Whitehouse join as goalkeeper to replace Baggaley (one Sophie for another!?)

Also good to hear of a pre-season game at the RHPC on Sunday August 15th! Bit weird it's against the team who the first home game in the league will be against, but it's the first pre-season game City Women would have played in front of fans for a couple of years now (most pre-season games in women's football were usually BCD, even before COVID)
https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/city-women-welcome-lewes-in-pre-season/

9 hours ago, CyderInACan said:

Can’t remember seeing this anywhere but the Sports Bar has now been rebranded after our new deal with George Ferguson’s Bristol Beer Factory, who are literally just at the end of Ashton Rd  

I was today years old when I found out that George Ferguson was a co-founder of Bristol Beer Factory. Hoping the bar inside is still unchanged; or changed for the better (if possible)

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/academy-quintet-join-first-team-squad/

Congrats to Academy players Brooke Aspin (Centre-back), Jasmine Bull (Midfield), Erin Foley (Goalkeeper) and Maddi Wilde (Full-back) who will join the first team squad!

Naomi Layzell (Centre-back) also returns to the squad, having made appearances last season.

Hoping there'll be another (experienced) goalkeeper to form part of the squad!

It seems City Women were on ITV News West Country last night. I mainly missed it as I was listening to Sound of the City, also I don't watch it.

They did an interview with new signing Simran Jhamat, during pre-season training at Stoke Gifford. I'm trying to work out who many of the players are

CONTI CUP GROUPS REVEALED!

It's a repeat of last season's group for Bristol City, with the only change being Reading replacing London Bees.

The group stages will run from 13-14 October through to 15-16 December, with the quarter-finals scheduled for 19-20 January, the semi-finals 2-3 February, and the Final on the weekend of 5-6 March.

The Conti Cup run was the most positive thing for the team, to counter the awful league form. Will be a miracle if the team head to the final again, but Reading do have somewhat of an advantage of being the only WSL team in said group

On 28/07/2021 at 23:29, Davefevs said:

She has.  Scored within a minute of coming off the bench on her debut.

I mentioned more about her on a Man Utd fan show I appeared on this (as she played for them before joining City), but various sources confirm she was likely to leave for the NWSL regardless of City avoiding relegation or not. Her contract was up and there was interest

1 minute ago, Engvall’s Splinter said:

Pitman a good signing for them. Mental we cast him off about 5+ years ago. 

Indeed! Was a big fan of his when he played for City. Didn't think he'd been at Swindon for that long. Good luck to him.

P.S. Loving the shithousery on the club website regarding how City are mentioned

"From there, Pitman completed a move to the Gas' cross-city rivals, but his stint there was short-lived, as he returned to Bournemouth in League One just two years later."

Looks like I'll finally get to see a "S. Murray" play live!

(Although Satara Murray is American, and last played in England for Liverpool several years ago)

Another new signing today!

Ella Powell joins from Charlton, having previously played at Lewes, so already plenty of Championship experience.

Hoping this is another promising arrival.

Interesting article regarding Georgia Wilson, who turns out the main reason she didn't play so many games last season was due to having long COVID.

10 hours ago, Hamdon Mart said:

I'm guessing the majority of games will be on the Sunday, won't they? Bit puzzled as to why they've dated both days of the weekend. 

All the teams in the Championship (and WSL, whose fixtures were also announced today) have had their fixtures announced like this.

I assume it is to do with the new TV deal for the WSL, with Sky & BBC knowing which games they will show & when.
Don't think the Championship is involved as much in the TV deal, but fixtures announced in the same way

2021/2022 fixtures out!

Team are away to Crystal Palace for first game in August, then home to Lewes & away to Liverpool for first two games in September. Last league game is away to Sunderland.

Who's looking forward to it!?

Comments on club website also confirm plans are being worked on for matchday bus services from city to the Robins High Performance Centre

Another Welsh contingent joins City!

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/morgan-joins-city-ranks/

Ffion Morgan joins having previously played at the club's academy, and most recently played for Crystal Palace.

P.S. Still find it weird that the club haven't acknowledged that Charlie Wellings joined Celtic last week...

https://celticfcwomen.celticfc.com/news/first-team/english-striker-charlie-wellings-joins-the-hoops

Another new signing!

Simran Jhamat joins, having previously played at various Championship teams including Liverpool, Leicester, Coventry Utd & most recently Lewes.

And if I understand correctly, she's the first South Asian footballer to play for City (men or women), which as a South Asian myself, I am very pleased about 

(If that isn't the case and I've forgotten someone, please do correct me) 

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/jhamat-is-a-robin/

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/allen-re-signs-with-city/

Great to see Flo Allen commit to the club with a new contract. Played a lot last season & it's positive to see she wants to stay.
Hopefully the good news will continue, with Jess Woolley also signing a new deal (after almost two years out with injury), as well as Maisy Collis & Izzy Cook step up from the academy to sign their first professional contracts.

14 hours ago, Warwickshire Red said:

Why are they still called vixens? About time they became Robins surely?

They officially became the Robins ahead of the 2019/2020 season. Older/longer fans of the team & in women's football still use the nickname in an affectionate way - especially with the (mostly positive) history of Bristol Academy

In an early episode of the Vixencast last season, D-M, Nat & I did clarify this, and wasn't meant to criticise the rebrand.

People call them Robins, other people call them Vixens.

Anyway, today's news has proven this unwanted fact:

4 hours ago, Hamdon Mart said:

And as a sad antidote to yesterday's slightly encouraging news, another four players leave today.... Meaghan Sargeant, Faye Bryson, Megan Wynne and Sophie Baggaley.

Sophie can count herself unlucky not to have won international honours. Very rare she makes a mistake but her departure along with that of Ebony Salmon and Gemma Evans was somewhat inevitable. 

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/quartet-set-to-depart/

Meaghan Sargeant was announced by Villa on Saturday, but City have acknowledged it today

3 hours ago, phantom said:

I have to say I am amazed by how many players are leaving.

Were they all out of contract?

Baggaley was out of contract, and is ideally too good to play below the WSL. She's been at the club for four years, so longer than I thought
https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/sophie-bags-city-contract-extension/ (from 2019)

Wynne was only a one year deal
https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/wynne-pens-permanent-deal-with-robins/ (from last summer)

Bryson is the interesting one. She signed a two year contract last summer, but I don't know if a clause was triggered, or if she was sold to Reading (where she has been announced today)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53256769

3 hours ago, phantom said:

Always dislike players that were the main reason for getting a club relegated then piss off without trying to get the team back up via promotion

Baggaley I believe had one of the highest amount of saves last season. Most of the goals she conceded wasn't her fault; just combination of bad defence/strong attack.
Wynne was injured in pre-season & didn't even get to play a single game!
Don't think I recalled Bryson ever having a bad game. Was very vital in a few games.

One problem with women's football is how short the contracts can be, or how easy they can not be fulfilled by clauses, etc.
Would be common across all sports for players to leave a relegated team to join a new one in the league they just played in.

Interesting regarding the players that joined Liverpool from City - they may have enjoyed working with Matt Beard & vice versa.
However what was surprising was yesterday when Laura Rafferty, on loan at City last season & who was released by Brighton, has decided to step down to the Women's National League to rejoin her former club Southampton (where she is from originally, despite being a Northern Ireland international)

On better news today, City announced a second signing - 20-year old Ava Kuyken. Previously at Arsenal, then went to Florida for a college scholarship (which is common in women's football). Looks promising!

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/kuyken-is-a-robin/