Women's football talking points: Lucy Graham’s stunner leaves wasteful Everton in fight against relegation

Lucy Graham - Women's football talking points: Lucy Graham’s stunner leaves wasteful Everton in fight against relegation
Lucy Graham lines up a shot against Everton Credit: REX FEATURES

Lucy Graham’s curling strike from 30 yards – the hosts’ first shot of the game – was enough to give Bristol City victory over Everton in a game in which Tanya Oxtoby’s side again exhibited their defensive mettle. 

Elise Hughes and Angharad James each hit the woodwork for Everton and Hannah Cain was denied by Loren Dykes at the eleventh hour. Everton remain second from bottom and City fifth, three points behind Birmingham.

Arsenal make easy work of Liverpool

Arsenal’s quest to end their seven-year wait for the Women’s Super League title was given a timely boost in their 5-1 mauling of Liverpool, a Courtney Sweetman-Kirk penalty the only riposte to goals from Kim Little, Dominique Bloodworth, Vivianne Miedema and a double from Beth Mead that featured her signature cross-turned-shot wobbler from England’s SheBelieves win over Brazil.

Arsenal’s haul of 62 league goals in 16 league games places them back in the driving seat for the title race with just five league games remaining. Still boasting a game in hand over their closest contenders, they have leapfrogged Manchester City once more and the pair will face each other on the final game of the season. But Arsenal could have it all wrapped up before then: victories in three of their remaining four games would be enough.

Good week for … 

Juventus Women, who played in the Allianz Arena for the first time in their history and managed to attract 39,000. Their 1-0 win over Fiorentina set an attendance record for Italian women’s football.

That this comes so recently after two record attendances in Spain – in January, 48,121 attended Athletic Bilbao’s cup game against Atletico Madrid at San Mames, before Atletico and Barcelona shattered that record when 60,739 flooded the Wanda Metropolitano – does beg the question of when English clubs will begin to think as big and rival the marketing strategies of their foreign counterparts.

The biggest attendance shock in women’s football in England this week was that 1,252 attended Nottingham Forest Ladies’ 1-1 draw against Derby County – the reverse fixture at Pride Park drew 2,109 – in the third tier.

Why can English football draw bumper crowds for its FA Cup final, but only 2,424 for the League Cup final at Bramall Lane, a ground accessible for northern fans? 

Maria Tato, Bilbao’s deputy secretary, told Telegraph Sport she has fielded scores of calls from clubs hoping to emulate the club’s success, but it rankles that while the Lionesses have sold out the first and most northern of their “Road to France” World Cup warm-up games, against Canada at the City Football Academy, the ground they have chosen seats just 7,000. Swindon’s County Ground is better at 15,728, but the capacity of Walsall’s Bescot is only 11,300.

Bad week for … 

Tottenham, who suffered against Sheffield United only their second home league defeat of the season after goals from Manchester United loanee Ebony Salmon and Jade Pennock’s injury-time winner cancelled out Jessica Naz’s opener. Casey Stoney’s full-time United team still have a game in hand over Spurs and are in control of their own destiny in the title race.

Performance of the week … 

Manchester United moved to the top of the Championship after narrowly edging out Charlton 2-1 thanks to goals from Katie Zelem and Jess Sigsworth. They had to dig deep, however, after substitute Kit Graham’s strike with eight minutes remaining pulled one back for Charlton.

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