Birdy flies back to Twerton Park to inflict pre-season defeat on City

Bath City Women suffered their first pre-season defeat at the hands of Bristol Brunel yesterday. The newly promoted visitors, with ex-City marksman Martin Paul in the dugout, benefitted from a strong start at Twerton. Polly Williams had already hit the bar before firing Brunel ahead on six minutes, and it was doubled on 20 when Evie Grant reacted quickest to a cross coming back off the crossbar. For City, Adella Clarke skewed wide after a neat lay-off from Tia Mahadevan but the away side looked the more threatening to add to their tally. Leilani Ryder was denied by an excellent double save from Lucy Clay and the same player poked wide having burst away from the defence.

The half-time break benefitted City as they pulled one back within four minutes of the restart. Sophie Storey’s searching ball to the back post was well controlled by Jess Evans who moved inside and fired home. The deficit returned to two within three minutes. Ryder was well denied by Clay but Liv Hurley was perfectly placed to dispatch the rebound. City pulled another back on 63 minutes when Mahadevan’s strength aided her teeing up Beth Edwards, whose fine strike from 25 yards was out of the visiting keeper’s reach. Matt Abreu’s team had more of the ball in the closing stages but didn’t create a clear enough chance to force a draw, with Mahadevan hitting the side-netting from a near impossible angle the only real scare on the Brunel goal.