Doncaster Belles are pointless after 13 games and are nine points behind Reading and Sunderland with only three games to go after Arsenal Ladies thrashed them 5-0.

The Belles have a -38 goal difference while Sunderland have -18 and Reading -9. The Belles need to see those two sides collect zero points from two games. They also need to win their three remaining games by around six goals each to have a chance to stay up.

Quite a difficult task for a team with zero points in 13 games. They are on course to be the worst ever FA WSL team. The current record is held by Everton Ladies with four points in 14 games from four draws.

This is an unbelievable turnaround for a team that came into pre-season with a lot of ambition and goals to achieve on and off the pitch. There were many quality signings but things did not work out.

There is no doubt that the Belles have been at a clear disadvantage with the fixture list. In the summer, they had played three games and lost them all against the top three teams while other sides had played up to seven games already.

They were clearly up against it and had to chase the pack having nil points at the mid-season. They then sacked manager Glenn Harris; no one seems to know why and it does not look like the decision was result-based or if it was, her successor Emma Coates has a zero out of 10 record, which is a lot worse.

Overall the results on the pitch have been poor and things off the pitch have not been great either apparently. Let’s hope they can regroup and come back stronger after a season in WSL2 and bounce back straightaway like Bristol are doing this season.