The second tier of women’s football started on Sunday and there are many ambitious teams vying for promotion this season.
It also seems that a number of teams are trying to move into full time professional football even in the second tier.
Charlton, Aston Villa, Sheffield United, and London City United are all rumoured to be there- or soon will be.
With only one promotion this season and relegation introduced for the first time, there will be a lot of competition at the top and bottom of the table.
Here are the matchday 1 results:
Your opening weekend results in the #FAWC
Which team impressed you the most? pic.twitter.com/EfX1RBfMmd
— The FA Women's Championship (@FAWC_) August 18, 2019
In the battle of the promotion contenders Aston Villa ended up 3-2 winners against Sheffield United after being 2-0 down.
Durham Women, who have traditionally been a strong side and have had a quiet, but intelligent, transfer window won impressively at Leicester City 5-1.
Another 5-1 winner was Lewes, who defeated promoted side Blackburn Rovers.
Lewes have made a lot of changes during this transfer window with 12 new faces in the side. Fran Alonso has a squad that should fit his football vision and will surely compete for promotion if the team gels quickly enough.
London City Lionesses, the newly formed team, hid its squad until Sunday morning. They won their first game 2-0 away at London Bees. Both sides have seen a lot of changes in personnel this summer. 11 of London City Lionesses’s 22 player-squad are actually ex-Arsenal youth players. They are also managed by Chris Phillips, our former Development Team manager.
The final game ended up as a nil-nil draw between Crystal Palace and Coventry United.
The table looks like this:
https://twitter.com/FAWC_/status/1163124830897627136?s=19
It should be a very exciting Championship season, unlike last year when we all knew that United would win it as they were the only professional side up against semi-pro teams.
To see more money invested in women’s football is very good news and there are also teams making great strides the FA Women National League (tier 3 & 4) that also started on Sunday.