It gets pretty demanding at times, especially when we regularly play midweek. Though it was probably the lack of game this midweek that made me slack off a bit and almost decide to scrap it, but here it is.

Don’t worry, there isn’t a great deal of talk about the game, not much happened, but there’s plenty about pubs, doughnuts, history and spillage.

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Of course, this goalless draw adds another game to the Reds’ impressive unbeaten run, but expectations that have built up of late mean this must be viewed as two points dropped rather than a point gained against well-organised opponents. Everton were certainly well-organised but little more than that and only rarely did United threaten to test their resilience.

A less optimistic, but entirely fair, reading of the Reds’ form this season may focus on the lack of goals in this side. Despite those rampant performances in the Subway Cup against lower league or under-strength opponents, United have now managed only nine goals in eight games in the WSL this season and the lack of flexibility and movement in the forward line at Everton will give Eva Olid something to think about. Do the Subway Cup performances of Lea Schuller make a case for her inclusion ahead of Elisabeth Terland, for instance? And will Celine Bizet soon be ready for a return to the starting line-up?

It’s a reminder that the boss does have options at her disposal and, when Jayde and Simi were introduced later on, United did threaten to carve out a late winner. Some may feel their entry to the game was delayed too long, especially as Ella Toone once again struggled on an afternoon when the space she is so good at exploiting rarely opened up.

With no Subway Cup game this week, Eva Olid does have a chance to work on some of these issues, as well as getting an extra week’s training into the legs of players like Jayde and Celin ahead of next Sunday’s visit to Villa Park.

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The Reds adopted a 4-4-2 formation, Ellen Wangerheim partnering Lea Schuller up front, but Burnley proved stubborn opponents, belying their position close to the bottom of WSL2. Former Red Leah Galton put in a typically hard-working performance for the Clarets and fellow United legend Rachel Williams joined her on the pitch after half-time, giving home fans another chance to show their appreciation for two players who made huge contributions to the United cause.

In a largely error-free first half for the visitors, it was an unfortunate mistake from Burnley keeper Burns that gifted United the lead, spilling a routine cross at the feet of Ellen Wangerheim, who prodded home from close range. Otherwise, United toiled in a first half of few real chances.

The second half saw the re-introduction of Celin Bizet, back in the Reds squad after becoming a mother last season, with Emma Watson and Jayde Riviere also returning from injury. It was Jayde who made the biggest impact, looking sharp at right back and setting up Lea Schuller for United’s second goal. Lea soon added a third and was only denied her hat trick by the Burnley crossbar.

As a spectacle, the match never got close to matching the fireworks at St Helens last week or the explosive United performance that saw off Sheffield United at LSV earlier in the competition, but United comfortably secured the three points that move them closer to qualification for the knockout stages, which they’ll look to secure when Everton visit on 18 November.

Mark Whitby

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Cover photo by Maisy Green (insta: shotsbymaisy)

Match report below by Mark Whitby

Not for the first time, it was great to have the opportunity to head to LSV after earlier in the day witnessing a United men’s performance of such ineptitude it managed to rival that dismal display in Como. Undoubtedly, United Women would face a tough test against a city side going into the game with a 100% record in the WSL, but we could be assured that, whatever the result, they’d produce a performance fitting of the United shirt.

After a difficult start to the season, the Reds have been on a good run of form too, of course. Following a six-game winning run in all competitions this derby under the LSV lights looked like the first real test a United side eager to put that 5-0 mauling against Chelsea earlier in the season firmly behind them.

The 50-50 possession stats at the end of the game tell you all you need to know about the intensity and competitiveness on display from both sides. This was what the pundits like to call a ‘proper derby’, with every ball fought over and the United fans in full voice on the North Terrace while the city supporters cradled their inflatable bananas, their club’s one legitimate contribution to football.

In many ways, Bunny Shaw is the archetypal city player, constantly pushing the laws of the game to their limit and protesting vociferously when she doesn’t get the decision she wants. She’s also, admittedly, a very good player and when she found space in the United box to give the visitors the lead mid-way through the second half, it was the kind of opportunity she doesn’t pass up. Would the Reds’ considerable efforts go unrewarded?

But there was something about this United performance that told you they wouldn’t go down without at least taking the fight to the very end and that’s precisely what we did. Lea Schuller and Mared Griffiths were introduced late on to fortify the forward line and, in the 89^th minute, Elisabeth Terland pounced to grab a deserved equaliser. Fittingly, it was Shaw who presented her with the opportunity, her headed clearance falling at Teri’s feet to bring a fitting end to a performance of determination, fight and no little quality.

The men’s team should be forced to watch this on a loop before travelling to Chelsea on Saturday, their eyelids forcibly prised open if necessary.

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Buy issue 28

Preface
“For mine own good, all causes shall give way. I am in blood stepped in so far”. So says Shakespeare’s Macbeth, defying reason and refusing to turn back from the wrongdoing that he knows will lead to his own destruction (sorry for the spoiler but you have had 400 years). Expect a far less eloquent, far less honest version when the Berties come to Leigh on Sunday.

If the football Gods had a sense of justice, I’d be confident that our lasses are ready to send them whirling to oblivion. But the Gods, just like our Earthly authorities, aren’t that into fairness. If they were, that verdict wouldn’t just be about the financial fudging that gave City’s men the most illegally-assembled sporting force since Space Jam. It would have been zero-tolerance condemnation of everyone associated with City, or any side for that matter, who wanted to win so much they willingly put their club in corrupt, blood-stained hands.

It should be laughable for City to play any football at all until every layer of their wrongdoing has been scrubbed clean. City’s supporters should be able to express their embarrassment and shame openly, without masking it behind cringe-worthy bravado that would make even Macbeth wince. But fulfill the fixtures we must, and so this is one derby where the result, while not exactly irrelevant, feels like a sideshow.

Whatever their ill-gotten champions might do on the pitch, off it we need to loudly let them and the world know that they can’t cover this up anymore. To paraphrase Macduff, hungry for justice against Macbeth, “front to front bring thou this fiend of Stockport and ourselves”, so we can tell them to their faces that no amount of mental gymnastics will contort basic rights and wrongs.

Just so you remember what’s at stake, here’s what I said in the last issue of the mag. Keep your eyes peeled in Issue 28 for part 2. And don’t forget: matters on the pitch are deliberately being used to distract us from this stuff - don’t let that happen.

You Either Make Money or You Make History

Manchester has had quite the summer. Our mayor’s become Prime Minister, Wonderwall became the World Cup anthem, the BRIT awards have moved in. Frank Skinner summed it up for everyone else: “we’re being Manchestered”. Both Manchester clubs duly released kits dripping with Manchester visuals. I’m a proud Mancunian, so why does this all feel so tacky? Well, it’s because Manchester’s stopped doing what made it so interesting.

Tony Wilson believed that you either make money or you make history. Manchester is here because of the radicals in science, technology, and industry that made the money, but the radicals that fought back against them made the history. They cradled the labour movement and bled at Peterloo. Their grace under oppression inspired Marx, Engels and the Pankhursts. They excelled in football because they felt like it was theirs. They made art and music as they made machines and commodities: with a fervour to innovate rather than stagnate. They never, by a long stretch, built a utopia. Or even a Vimtopia. But they gave the world a culture of romance in the realest terms, of uncompromising compassion and humour. Listen to Joy Division, The Fall, The Smiths; that poetic gaze cemented on what was right in front of them. They couldn’t have come from anywhere else.

But in today’s Manny (urgh), there’s no more production, only the product. The clamour to right the next wrong or make the next new thing just seems to have stopped. The moneymakers are doing fine, but where are the history makers? Ironically, Manchester has instead started trading on nostalgia for its forward-looking past, a concept (and indeed a sentence) that ties my head in knots. It’s a Manchester-themed amusement park built out of ugly skyscrapers by ugly landlords and Affleck’s Palace brought to you by Bruntwood. Grab a bucket hat and hand over your savings to see Oasis - the perfect mono-browed face of the neo-Manchester package; a pair of past-it caricatures. I know it was a safety thing, but the screens excluding the ticketless from their reunion was the perfect visual metaphor to explain modern Manny: If you can pay in, there’s nothing new, but you can buy the stuff you wanted when you were a kid. If you can’t, you stay outside, trapped among the dark, Satanic mills, the uneven contours of deprivation carved out over generations.

That’s probably too cynical and ignorant. I know there will be people fighting the good fights and creating exciting things and keeping the North a friendlier place to be. If this was just about aesthetics I didn’t like, I wouldn’t be writing it. I’d be laughing at Southerners for not knowing what a ginnel is like everyone else. But something very wrong is lurking under the stagnant surface, the football clubs are in on it, and the kits are the first clue. To be fair, United’s new 3^rd kit inspired by The Salford Lad’s Club is tasteful, especially given the connection with Busby Babe Eddie Colman. But our home shirt supposedly inspired by that bridge over the Irwell, City’s current bee-themed kit, their Factory Records one, and so on... why such lazy appropriation from commercial giants that genuinely (United) or fraudulently (City) claim massive global appeal?

I saw a United fan on social media hit on the incredible phrase “performative Mancunianism”. It’s perfect, revealing the rush to “our kid” everything up for what it is: a marketing ploy. He questioned the taste in commercialising the wonderful Manchester bee, given how Mancunians organically embraced it in the wake of tragedy. Naturally, his comments were full of City fans mindlessly reciting cherished untruths about being the only team in Manchester. That nonsense was once tedious, but it’s now more sinister than just Berties being thick. Over the last decade or so, United’s and City’s owners have been among the vultures swooping over our languishing city.

INEOS and the Glazers want the plaudits for the new stadium while public services do the hard work of shaping an enormous regeneration project. Manchester gets some growth, but how will the profits be divvied up with Florida and Monaco? City’s Manchester Life partnership with the council built 1,468 homes, and all they got in return was some of the profit and 999-year leases on some public land, potentially at a fraction of market value. Researchers can’t figure out exactly what City’s owners gained and the public purse lost, but that’s just because the money went through offshore firms in Jersey. But despite these and other blessings from our football overlords, I could swear huge swathes of Manchester are still massively disadvantaged. I just hope some councillors and contractors somehow managed to do financially well for themselves in roughly the same timeframe. Somehow.

Yes, parts of Manchester are doing a lot better because of these and other shady regenerations. But putting rivalry as far aside as I can, City are the best (or worst) example of my point. Their owners aren’t just establishing a post-oil economy. They’re turning Mancunians, who have so often decried injustice, into willing propagandists. They’re making the money, but by letting them into our game and our city we’re making the wrong kind of history. What ADUG wanted when they bought City’s weird little soul was an adoring, unquestioning public. And all of it, every star player, every goal, every trophy, a successful women’s team, Guardiola, the brand, the fans, the media, the politicians, it’s all crafted a bulletproof vest for their reputation and a silencer for their crimes.

Because they are exactly the sort of authoritarian tyrants that used to be met by Mancunians flying the revolutionary red flag, not rolling out the red carpet. Under their governance in the UAE, marital rape isn’t criminalised, women can lose maintenance for refusing sex without a ‘lawful excuse’, and domestic violence laws allow male guardians to ‘discipline’ female relatives within legally accepted limits. They criminalise homosexuality and expressions of gender they don’t like. Their massive migrant worker population face wage theft and passport confiscation, conditions that human rights organisations say amount to forced labour. Human rights defenders and peaceful critics are imprisoned under laws that criminalise dissent. Evidence suggests that in their overseas portfolio, City sits alongside the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, accused of widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These horrors need to be laid bare, not hidden. If this was United, I’d be saying the same thing. I’m not comparing our club, our country, our culture and just saying “we do better”, because in many ways we don’t. But the city we love has been compromised to its core by association. There has never been sustained, organised City supporter agitation about this. There is a warning in how readily City fans have willfully turned their backs on Mancunian heritage and basic humanity to become staunch defenders of transparent evil. All it took was superiority over United. “First they came for the Communists...”, and so on. If you’re a City fan somehow reading this, stop hiding behind your banana and tell me why this doesn’t matter to you. What price, exactly, are you happy to pay for an Agüero moment or a new Bunny Shaw contract?

The victims of this neglect and violence deserve justice and safety. The cognitive dissonance facilitating it needs to stop. I can only push back, one reader at a time, so here goes. Let me suggest a tour: Start at the Briton’s Protection (for now saved from developers building literally over its roof) where protesters hid from the sabres of Peterloo. Head past the Free Trade Hall, where Manchester’s new wave was born (maybe listening to Blue Monday, thinking about Factory Records losing money on every original copy, pondering what “those who came before me lived through their vocations, from the past until completion, they’ll turn away no more” might mean to you).

Cut through Brazennose Street, where Abe Lincoln stands in thanks to the workers who refused, despite the appalling Lancashire Cotton Famine, to break solidarity in the fight against slavery. Stroll past Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s and wonder where MUWFC would be without “Deeds, Not Words”. Turn towards Canal Street and Alan Turing on his bench, and feel safer than you will anywhere else in the city. Head up, just next to Chethams’s (the English-speaking world’s oldest free public library), and into the National Football Museum. Find the display with a Pride t-shirt officially adorned with a huge City crest. Think about that contradiction. Think of the people who fought and died so we can proudly wave all our colours in the streets of Manchester. Think about what happens when someone with a taste for violently restricting that freedom gets everyone looking the other way. Remember that City’s owners are the obvious example but by no means the only one.

You either make money or you make history. In Manchester, the bad guys are making money by hurting people, just like they always have. Do we oppose them, like the Mancunians that made our history? Or do we keep enabling them, like we’re doing today? My Mancunian heart gives me my answer. How about you, our kid?

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Lea Schuller opened the scoring, pouncing on Dom Janssen’s defence-splitting pass before Mared Griffiths added to her growing tally of goals in this competition with a brace before half-time. The first, which left Khiara Keating looking mystified as the ball found its way in at her near post, inevitably led to the travelling United fans once again enjoying themselves at the hapless keeper’s expense. In truth, however, the ragged Liverpool defence that would make any keeper nervous and United may well have added more goals in a rampant first-half display.

While Liverpool pushed forward in the second half, the initial result was a further strengthening of United’s stranglehold on the game as a run that began on the halfway line brought a fourth goal, courtesy of Monica Jusu Bah. Although Kapocs got one back for the home side, it was soon followed by United’s fifth, Maya Le Tissier’s shot squirming away from Keating to yield more gleeful chants from the United end.

There will be some concerns about how Kapocs was allowed to complete her hat-trick and give the scoreline a much closer look than the one-sidedness of the contest deserved. While United’s free-flowing football has now brought twenty goals in just three games in this competition and tonight’s win made it six wins out of six in all competitions, this tendency to concede avoidable goals is one thing Eva Olid will be looking to eliminate, preferable before Sunday’s visit of Manchester city.

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Definitely one to relive.

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The trip to The Valley was a blast from the past in other respects too: paper tickets, a stadium plonked among city streets, that portion of the old ground (once capable of accommodating over 60,000 supporters) still visible through a gap in the modern stands.

But once I’d got over the misty-eyed nostalgia, it was all about United. Charlton, of course, did incredibly well to go up last year, beating Leicester in a play-off having seen the prospect of direct promotion snatched away on the last day of the season. They’re favourites to go back down again, though, and, putting the footballing romantic in me aside for a moment, looked it. United duly took advantage of their evident defensive frailties to secure a first league away win of the season.

Among other things, it was great to see Tooney exploiting the pockets of space those defenders left and she continued United’s very welcome recent pattern of scoring early with a shot that cannoned in off the far post. Soon we were two-up, courtesy of a strike from Andrea Medina, and already looking comfortable.

As if to shake us out of our expectations of a relaxed afternoon in pleasant surroundings, Charlton struck on the break to halve our lead, to vociferous acclaim, from the home support, understandably so as it’s just their third league goal of the season. The two-goal lead was soon restored when an interchange between Jess Park – my POTM – and Ziggy resulted in the latter finding the back of the net.

If our second half performance was less explosive, United still looked in control throughout. Following our last visit to London and that draw at Arsenal, the prospect of three winnable league games presented itself and this result means we’ve indeed pocketed the nine points on offer. Manchester city on Sunday will, of course, present a different level of challenge.

Mark Whitby

Charlton Away and The Valley was everything LCL away wasn't: full of history and community and soul, really obvious enjoyment for the past and present of their men's and women's teams (including the mural of Casey Stoney lifting the 2005 FA Cup) Really cheerful energy that felt like a throwback to less cynical football times. Pigeons on the pitch and a little Charlton fan scowling so hard at our end singing "you've only come to see United" that I get the feeling she'll come again. If they keep insisting on having London sides in the WSL, I hope Charlton stay up and build a bigger crowd, I bet The Valley full would be worth seeing

Mike Croft

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England

Greece 1-3 England; England 5-0 Greece (Agg: 8-1)

MLT - our Captain fantastic played the full 90 minutes of the first leg and scored her first England goal; the second leg saw her start, make a few more attempts on goal before being subbed for Niamh Charles in the 59th minute.

Jess Park - Jess was super sub for both games in this international break, subbing on for Alessia in the the first leg and then subbing on for the debutant Lexi Potter in the second.

Ella Toone - As a late call up to the squad, to replace the injured Lucy Bronze, Tooney was an unused sub in both games

England will now go on to play Ukraine in the next round of the World Cup qualifying playoffs

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales

Albania 0-1 Wales; Wales 3-0 Albania (Agg: 2-0)

Mared Griffiths - Mared had a great international break, she played pretty much the whole of the first leg, getting subbed in ET; the second leg was the same, getting subbed in the 86th minute after assisting Wales’ second goal and earned PoTM

Scarlett Hill: Scarlett earned her first cap when she was subbed on in the 57th minute of the first leg, earning her the PoTM; the second leg saw her get her first start in a Welsh shirt, playing the whole game.

Safia Middleton Patel(currently on loan): SAF was in goal for both games and didn’t concede in either fixture.

Wales will now face Teri’s Norway in their next WC playoff round

🇸🇪 Sweden

Lithuania 0-5 Sweden; Sweden 10-0 Lithuania (Agg: 15-0)

Anna Sandberg - Anna played in both legs, she played the whole first leg and was subbed at HT in the second leg

Julia Zigiotti - Like Anna, she played the entire first leg and was subbed at HT of the second game.

Hanna Lundkvist- Another player who played the entire first leg and she also played the entire second leg too, scoring Sweden’s 4th goal on the night.

Monica Jusu Bah - Monica subbed in on the 64th minute and provided an assist to the 4th goal in the first leg and was an unused sub for the second leg.

A tight second leg in Stockholm secured Sweden’s progression to the next round where they will face Scotland.

🇳🇴 Norway

Romania 0-2 Norway; Norway 6-0 Romania (Agg: 8-0)

Elisabeth Terland - Teri had a quiet first leg, coming on as a sub in the 67th minute. She more than made up for that in the second leg where she scored a hat trick.

The first two came within the first 12 mins and she rounded off her hat trick with a penalty in the 54th minute before being subbed off after about an hour.

As already stated earlier, Norway will play Wales in the next qualifying round

🇳🇱 Netherlands

Hungary 0-8 Netherlands; Netherlands 3-0 Hungary (Agg: 11-0)

Dominique Janssen - Dom captained the Netherlands in both games, she was subbed off in the 72nd minute of the first game and played the entire second leg.

She will hopefully be leading the Netherlands team out again when they play Slovenia in their next round play offs

Moving on to the international friendlies:

🇨🇦 Canada

Canada 1-1 Denmark; Canada 3-4 Denmark

Simi Awujo - Simi was a sub in the 62nd minute of the first game; in the second leg she started but was subbed in the 73rd minute as Canada battled back from 1-3 down but just couldn’t find an equaliser before the end of the game.

Jayde Riviere - Jayde didn’t make the call up but she did spend the international break finally getting back to the gym at Carrington so we may see her back on the pitch soon.

🇯🇵 Japan

Haiti 1- 5 Japan; Germany 2-1 Japan

Hinata Miyazawa - Hini started the Haiti game, assisting the second goal and was subbed in the 81st minute; in the Germany game Hini made it into the game as a sub in the 59th minute.

🇩🇪 Germany

Lea Schüller withdrew from the Germany team with an illness before the first of Germany’s friendly fixtures, according to the German camp, so she spent the international break back home recovering.

🇲🇽 Mexico

Mexico 3 - 4 Jamaica; Mexico 3-1 Jamaica.

Rebecca Bernal - Rebe captained the Mexico team in both games. She scored a banger of a goal for Mexico’s second goal in the first leg, they just couldn’t quite find an equaliser. They made up for it in the second leg where Rebe captained them to a comprehensive win before being subbed late on in the game.

🇺🇸🇪🇸 USA and Spain

USA 0-2 Spain; USA 2-2 Spain

Phallon Tullis Joyce - PTJ was an unused sub for the first fixture, but played the second. Unfortunately she conceded two early goals but also made some good saves when her defence was leakier than the roof at OT.

Andrea Medina - Medi made her Spain debut in the first leg, coming on as a substitute for Lucía Corrales in the 66th minute. The second leg saw her get her first senior start and she was subbed off in the 78th minute. She did get a good whack to the head in a collision with one of the USA players early on the second half but seemed fine and played on.

As an aside, Lucía García got a late call up to replace Piña in the squad and she subbed on late in the second leg - I still hold out hope she will come back to us as her speed and physicality is just what we could do with this season and she would fit much better in Eva's systems than she did in Marc's (but that's a discussion for another day)

Youth Levels

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England

England U23s 0-2 Norway U23s

Jess Simpson - Jess played the full 90 minutes, unfortunately the young lionesses were beaten by Norway in their first game since winning their U23 European title in April.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England U19

England 1- 5 Denmark; Switzerland 2-2 England; England 6-0 Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jess Anderson - Jess played all three of England’s U19s Euros qualifiers - scoring England’s 4th goal with a low shot to the corner in the final fixture against Bosnia.

Evie Mitchell - Evie didn’t get the greatest start, having to come on in the Denmark game to replace Sophie Jackson who received a red card in the 9th minute in the first fixture and with Denmark using their player advantage England just couldn't pull it back. She also played both of the later fixtures, keeping a clean sheet for the last game against Bosnia.

Lucy Robinson - Lucy was an unused sub for the first two fixtures but subbed on in the first half of the Bosnia game following an injury.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales

Wales U19 1–0 Greece

Poppy Holt scored a banger of a goal to secure victory for the Welsh U19s against Greece.

🇸🇪 Sweden

Sweden U23 3 - 2 Finland; Germany U23 0-0 Sweden U23

Ellen Wangerheim - Ellen subbed into the Finland game at HT when Sweden were 0-2 down, and she scored the winning goal in the 88th minute. In the Germany game she started but was subbed off just after the hour mark of the game.

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It was a poor clearance from Khiara Keating that led to our Swedish midfielder seizing on the opportunity and sending it back over Keating’s head, a welcome and familiar sight for United fans. Keating’s career at city never really recovered after similar errors at the Etihad a couple of years ago and she will, perhaps, have experienced a United-induced sleepless night once again.

We might have added to the total. A superb run and shot from Jess Park struck Keating’s crossbar and the Reds failed to convert a further flurry of chances just after half-time. At other times, however, we looked in danger of being overrun in midfield. Liverpool nullified Andrea Medina’s effectiveness on the left as she was frequently drawn infield, leaving space for the visitors to attack United’s usually solid left side.

Andrea was withdrawn not long after half-time, which meant another opportunity for Mared Griffiths who again didn’t look out of place in the senior side. Her introduction strengthened United’s attack while still leaving us exposed as Liverpool attempted to penetrate the Reds’ defence. Although the saves Phallon made were, for her, relatively routine, she was called upon to intervene too many times for us to be comfortable with a one-goal lead.

This time, however, we managed not to concede late on, maintaining our first clean sheet of the season. With a visit to Charlton after the international break, United will be looking to secure a first away win of the season; something that will, if achieved, leave us looking reasonably well-placed after that dodgy start, admittedly with greater tests than this still to come.

Mark Whitby

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However, a combination of the home side’s organisation and United’s failure to turn possession into meaningful chances meant the teams went in level at half-time, Rebe’s opening goal cancelled out when Janina Leitzig allowed Lucy Watson’s speculative free kick to squirm in at her near post.

United fans are no stranger to Durham’s stubborn resilience, having seen the Reds lose at the club’s Maiden Castle ground in the past. They’ve found life more difficult since then, though – almost going out of business in the summer – and are now part-owned by Geoff Thompson, whose South Shields FC ground is being used for games in this competition.

While something remained of the physical style they’d honed to good effect in the past, they wilted quickly when the Reds asserted our superiority after the break. Dom’s free kick just before the hour mark was followed by Monica Jusu Bah’s first goal for the club and at that point any hopes of resistance the home side had quickly faded.

Late goals from Mared and Teri added to the score line. United ended the night with six academy graduates on the pitch and, with two wins already in the bag, United look well-placed to continue to experiment with the line-up in future games in this league stage of the Subway Players Cup. We ended the night level on points with four other teams who’ve also won their first two games but top due to a significantly better goal difference.

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This time the podcast and Mark’s match report are coming in the same email to ease the volume in your inbox.

Match report

By Mark Whitby

There are two different questions to ask about United’s early performances under Eva Olid. Firstly, are the team making progress in terms of adapting to Eva’s system? Secondly, do we look like a side who could begin to challenge for a top three place? At the end of this match, the answer to the first is a resounding ‘yes’. To the second, it’s still ‘no’.

For me, it represents an acceptable level of progress as we move towards the first international break. Following last week’s assured performance at Arsenal, a return to LSV presented the opportunity to assess our attacking capabilities against opponents who would certainly offer a tougher test than Sheffield United had in midweek, but which, in normal circumstances, we should be beating.

It was helpful to score early, Teri heading home from Anna’s corner, but the sustained pressure that led to the corner was, if anything, an even more promising sign. Admittedly, we didn’t apply this kind of pressure consistently, which, with players being asked different questions of the new set-up, is entirely understandable. Jess is having to think more about off-the-ball runs than was the case previously but there were clear signs in the second half that she is beginning to add this to her normal game. Teri’s movement up front was a massive improvement from her static performances in the first two games.

The stand-out performer, once again, was Andrea Medina. Playing again in an advanced position on the left, she had already cut inside to rattle the West Ham crossbar before a surging run into the West Ham area brought the second goal United’s second half performance deserved. After her initial shot was blocked, she lifted the ball effortlessly into the far corner to cap yet another POTM performance.

The second goal turned out to be crucial. Despite the many positives in this performance, we still don’t look like a side capable of keeping clean sheets and, as the game moved into injury time, West Ham were allowed a potential lifeline after Dom unwisely cut inside from the right, allowing the visitors to put pressure on the Reds’ defence, culminating in Anna’s clumsy trip in the area.

It’s a sign of our defensive frailty when attempting to play out from the back which is still too much in evidence and which better teams than West Ham can be expected to have more success in exploiting. Here, Asseyi dispatched the spot kick to give us a few nervy moments at the end of the game but United came through them to register a much-needed first league win of the season.

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Podcast cover photo by Maisy Green (shotsbymaisy), more of her matchday pics below

You’ve had Mark’s match review, now you have the words in the moment.

Our first win since March.

Enjoy

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But there was much more than that. United looked like a side determined to make a statement, the players for whom this was their first start of the season eager to seize the opportunity the Subway Players’ Cup will surely give them. The first half was played almost entirely in the opposition’s half. The Reds passed the ball around, piling up the goals through intricate build-up play and clever off-the-ball movement that the visitors were powerless to match.

The breakthrough came via a penalty after sustained United pressure led to a handball in the area. It was dispatched by Maya with her usual composure, after which the floodgates opened. Youngsters Mared Griffiths and Jess Simpson were both heavily involved, Mared scoring United’s third goal after Rebeca Bernal had doubled United’s lead with a header from Jess’s corner.

Five-up by half-time after further goals from Lea and Tooney, the Reds showed no signs of easing off in the second half, despite Sheffield United showing more aggression and carrying some threat on the break. In a seven-minute spell, Lea, Mared and Rebeca all added further goals, while Jess Simpson scored directly from a corner to make it nine.

Amy Andrews, who had looked the visitors’ main threat in the second half, scored a consolation goal before Mared completed a memorable night for her by completing a hat-trick and taking United into double figures.

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It will, of course, get more difficult than this, but it’s worth noting that, on the night, no other WSL1 side found it so easy to defeat second-tier opponents. Aston Villa had to wait until the 66^th minute for a breakthrough against Nottingham Forest, while Liverpool needed to come from behind to secure a home win against Sunderland. London City, meanwhile, needed two late goals to overcome Leicester’s resistance.

If United fans need any reminding of the dangers second-tier opponents can present, a trip to old adversaries Durham awaits in the second game of the league stage next week.

Mark Whitby

Maisy Green (shotsbymaisy) regularly shares her shots with Barmy Article. Here’s a selection from last night’s game. Look out for more of her photos in the fanzine and in future projects.

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In this episode we cover the tough opening we’ve had to the season. Give it a listen/watch and look out for future episodes.

Audio - https://t.co/0TfBcL3uBB
Ad-free - https://t.co/6XqkWHU7O7
Video - https://t.co/buBO59ZcSl

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The Pocket, as always, fulfilled that function. Making inroads into their excellent ale selection, we chatted with various gooners as they began to fill the place ahead of the game. Yes, they’d been surprised at our performance against Chelsea and also amazed that we’d let Melvine Malard go – ‘your most dangerous player’ said one, to the agreement of her colleagues.

But The Pocket was to be no more than an excellent aperitif to the main course of a United performance of spirit, resilience and no little quality. We needed a response to that dire Chelsea performance and we got it. While United spent much of the game on the back foot, unlike the previous weekend there was no sloppy defending to allow the opposition a foothold from which to dominate the game. Dom and Maya showed control and composure throughout and, when called upon, Phallon demonstrated why, for me, she’s still the best keeper in the WSL.

Pairing Andrea and Anna on the left side stifled the Arsenal threat on that side of the pitch and, for the first time this season, Ziggy looked the Ziggy of last season. Pushed forward in the second half, she exploited the home side’s increasing nervousness, pouncing on a Georgia Stanway error to finish with composure.

That we were to be denied the three points by a late Arsenal equaliser admittedly took some of the shine off the performance. While I’m sure many of us would have taken a point at the start of the game, to concede an equaliser in such circumstances is always going to hurt.

The prevailing memory, however, is of United delivering for the first team this season, setting us up, surely, for what should, on this performance, be a couple of winnable home games in quick succession.

It feels like the Eva Olid era has finally arrived.

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There will be some who put such inept displays down to a tough early season schedule for a team still trying to find its feet under a new manager: everything will be all right by the time less illustrious opponents trot out at LSV, perhaps. Such a view seems implicitly to accept that we won’t be bothering the top teams at the moment and suggests a worst-ever WSL finish of sixth place may be the best we can hope for this season.

On the evidence seen so far, I fear even that may be optimistic. On Saturday, West Ham exposed the weaknesses of London City Lionesses with such ease it placed our defeat to them in even more worrying context. Chelsea dropped points to Aston Villa on that first weekend and frankly didn’t have to do anything special in this first away outing to run up a scoreline that managed to flatter us rather than them. A better Chelsea side might easily have got into double figures.

We had started the match looking in better shape than had been the case in South London. We were closing opponents down, showing a bit of movement in the middle of the field, Medina once again looking an excellent signing at left-back and then…Dom pretty much replicated her error in last year’s League Cup Final, gifting Chelsea the lead and everything fell apart.

It’s hard to put any kind of positive slant on a performance like this. If the players are struggling to respond to the demands of a manager’s new system, that’s understandable, but more worrying is that it’s hard to figure out precisely what that system is. Certainly, the major overhaul Eva Olid hinted isn’t discernible: the approach looks no more than a pale shadow of what we had last year.

More worryingly, most players look well off the pace, even more than was the case in the later stages of last season’s demanding schedule. I hope I’m wrong in jumping to such conclusions, but it seems entirely possible that the much-publicized pronouncements from the club about the direction of the women’s team has drained away any belief the players had in the long-term project.

I’ve got more respect for the playing squad than to suggest they’ve downed tools on purpose, but as human beings it would be understandable if the question ‘Would I be better off somewhere else?’ has popped into a few heads, not to mention voiced in the dressing room.

I hope I’m wrong, of course, but it’s going to need a massive transformation to get anything out of the Arsenal game next week. On this evidence, even Sheffield United may be smacking their lips in anticipation…

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Cover photo: shotsbymaisy

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Buy it here

It’ll be on sale on Sunday at the Chelsea match where we’ll also be recording our first matchday vlog for the YouTube channel. If you won’t be there on Sunday, order online and I’ll post it so you’ll get it next week (hopefully).

While you’re there, merge the postage with a purchase of the colouring book we released recently. It has 8 original pictures by the same artist as issue 27’s front cover, with line versions of them for you to colour in.

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Although there was a consensus that United were terrible on the night, explanations for such an abysmal performance differed. There were those who looked at the quality of the LCL side and reflected on our own lack of squad investment in comparison. Some wondered where the attacking play Eva had promised was, while others pointed out that changing the manager a few weeks before the start of the season was hardly going to help us get off to a flying start.

Signs of a more adventurous approach to the game did belatedly appear in the second half and Simi’s arrival off the bench did much to facilitate that, as did the injury to Corrales, one of several excellent performers for the home side. The deficit was still only one goal at that point and there remained the prospect of United grabbing an unlikely point.

That prospect disappeared when three United defenders somehow allowed Van De Donk to double the lead for the home team, adding to Ziggi’s first half own goal. Despite the Lionesses’ dominance, both of the goals we conceded were self-inflicted. Simi got a goal back for us, far too late, but there were encouraging signs from her that the raw talent that was always there might be about to mature. A rare positive to take from a grim night.

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It was interesting to see interviews from the LCL players praising the atmosphere after the game because, predictably, much of the noise came from behind the goal where United fans were congregated. Some excitement among the home fans was generated by the arrival of the T-shirt cannons, which kind of says it all. The spectacle they aimed to create on the night resulted in Hayes Lane resembling a pale shadow of the Joie, which is pale enough to begin with.

‘Where’s Mary Earps?’ our fans asked. She was, of course, warming the bench of her new club and will perhaps spend much of the season there. Given her high profile strop over occupying a single position with the other Lionesses, maybe there’s the prospect of fireworks from Mary at some stage. If so, they’re bound to be rather more explosive than the pitiful attempt at pyrotechnics our hosts produced prior to kick off.

What were your thoughts on the game?

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