On Sunday, Portsmouth travel to Yorkshire to take on Leeds in the league, hoping to get their first win in several games. Focus on Pompey please log in to view this image In an end-to-end game with lots of drama, Portsmouth managed a 3-3 draw with Cardiff. In the initial exchanges, Cardiff looked dangerous and put Portsmouth under a great deal of pressure. Perhaps against the run of play, Portsmouth took the lead from Kirsty McGee. Spurred on by this goal, Portsmouth quickly struck a second with Lauren Murphy scoring from a Leeta Rutherford corner. Two-nil was the half time score. Within minutes of the second half, Cardiff had scored. An unstoppable shot from outside the area which even I was impressed with. Within a few minutes, the referee had given Cardiff an undeserved penalty, after Fiona MacMillan (apparently) shoulder charged the Leeds striker. Despite losing their 2 goal lead, Portsmouth dug in and Charley Wilson scored again to take the score to 3-2, however Cardiff equalised with just five minutes to go, following a sweeping passing move that left the keeper stranded. To be fair, a draw was probably a reasonable result. please log in to view this image Pompey take a free kick Focus on Leeds please log in to view this image I think the first thing to say about Leeds is that they're not the only Leeds-based football team based in the city of Leeds. Leeds City Vixens play in the Northern Division. As for Leeds United, they were formed in 1989. After seven years playing in the Yorkshire and Humberside league, the team gained promotion to the Premier League Northern Division in 1997. After consolidating their position in this league, Leeds were promoted to the National Division in 2002. The club have remained in this division since. In 2008, the club partnered with Leeds Met University and so adopted the name Leeds Carnegie Ladies (continuing the tradition of sports club partnering the university of adopting the name of the Sports Department -Carnegie College). Just two years later, the partnership was ended, with Leeds met withdrawing their funding and support for Leeds' WSL bid. Subsequently, they partnered with Leeds United and so re-adopted the name Leeds United L.F.C. Last Season Pompey League: Women's Premier League Southern Division Position: 1st Top Goal Scorer: Jemma Tewkesbury (18) Leeds League: Women's Premier League National Division Position: 2nd Top Goal Scorer: Carey Huegett (9) Last Match Portsmouth 3 - 3 Cardiff @ Moneyfields Sports Ground, home of Moneyfields F.C. Leeds United 18 - 0 Ossett Albion @ Throstle Nest, home of Farsley Celtic F.C. League Table As It Stands POS P W D L GD PTS 1 Sunderland WFC 6 5 1 0 15 16 2 Leeds United LFC 6 4 0 2 3 12 3 Watford LFC 6 3 2 1 3 11 4 Aston Villa LFC 7 3 0 4 -5 9 5 Cardiff City LFC 6 2 2 2 3 8 6 Manchester City LFC 6 2 2 2 2 8 7 Portsmouth FC Ladies 7 2 2 3 -5 8 8 Charlton Athletic WFC 6 2 1 3 2 7 9 Coventry City LFC 7 2 0 5 -6 6 10 Barnet FC Ladies 5 0 2 3 -12 2
Hopefully the girls can inflict a first defeat over Leeds. How many sides get relegated Lapras - I see we're only 2 points above Coventry!
Two teams are relegated, replaced by the champions of the Northern and Southern Division respectively. The problem is, our record against the teams lower than us is far from great, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if we come 8th, 8th would be a success IMO so we only need to be better than two teams. As Pompey London says, it definitely looks like a tough game. While we do really need a win, I think a draw would be a good result. We seem to be quite good at scoring goals (and I noticed that we're quite a threat from corners) so I'd like to think we'd score. Heart says 2-2, head says 3-1 to Leeds. Though I don't think Leeds are unbeaten, looking at the table they seem to have lost twice but I'm guessing one of those was probably against Sunderland. I think we also need some luck, even if it's a flukey undeserved win, we haven't had the best of luck recently, with penalties that shouldn't have been, our first choice keeper getting injured and having to have a defender play in goal, and conceding in the last few minutes.
Btw, I created a Facebook page for the team, as they didn't have one, so join it! You know you want to. http://www.facebook.com/PortsmouthFCLadies
Damnit, I was so close with my prediction. Predicted 3-1 and and it finished 3-0. We've dropped to 8th..... Worrying times. Though I'd say losing only 3-0 to Leeds isn't THAT bad considering they're apparently a big enough club in the world of women's football that they can actually apparently sell tickets for their games. For real money. Not sure what their attendances are though (though I'd say Farsley's ground is probably better than Moneyfields..... maybe the ladies need to move to West Leigh Park).
