The FA WSL Conti Cup Round 1 has seen the biggest upset ever in the FA WSL with WSL 2 side London Bees beating league holders Chelsea Ladies on penalties.

For context, the Bees are sixth in WSL2 while Chelsea are second in WSL1. Bees are semi-professional while Chelsea are full-time professional.

Both sides played their third choice goalkeeper on the day. In previous seasons, Bees lost 13-0 and 8-0 against Chelsea.

It is an unbelievable result for a team that was struggling at the bottom of the WSL2 in previous seasons. Bees have two players who were at the Arsenal Academy, Ashleigh Goddard and Rebecca Anderson, as well one player who had a brief stint with the reserves, Jo Wilson, and a girl who had many years at the centre of excellence, Andria Georgiou.

One previous huge upset was Reading – then in WSL2 – beating Arsenal under Shelley Kerr for the only ever defeat in cup games against lower division opposition for the Arsenal Ladies.

There were also two other upsets as well, in the clash between the WSL 2 sides where 8th placed Sheffield beat second placed Bristol, while bottom of the WSL 1 Doncaster recorded their first win in 2016 by beating the team above them in the table, Sunderland Ladies.

There were no surprises in the other games will all the WSL 1 side beating the WSL2 sides and in the game between WSL 1 side Arsenal prevailed against Reading.

Round 1 results:

  • London Bees 3 Chelsea 3 4-2 (pso)
  • Aston Villa 0 Man City 8
  • Everton 0 Liverpool 1
  • Reading 1 Arsenal 3
  • Sheffield 2 Bristol 0
  • Doncaster 2 Sunderland 1
  • Oxford 0 Birmingham 2
  • Yeovil 1 Notts County 3

The quarter-finals will be played on 6th and 7th of August. We don’t know when the draw will be made.