Bristol City Women and Charlotte Healy secured their second win of the WSL 2 season against Southampton at St Mary's
15:00, 22 Sep 2025
Charlotte Healy was left feeling "really proud" after Bristol City Women's late win over Southampton, with the Robins head coach impressed by the manner in which her squad have responded to their opening day defeat to Birmingham City.
City secured back-to-back WSL 2 wins for the first time both this season and under Healy's management, as Lexi Lloyd-Smith's 88th-minute strike proved to be enough to see the Reds to a 1-0 victory against the Saints at St Mary's on Sunday afternoon.
Both sides had spurned chances to take the lead over the course of the contest, but just as it looked as though time could be running out for either team to find a winner, Lloyd-Smith tucked home her second of the campaign. After breaking towards the penalty area, the substitute interchanged with Rio Hardy before finding the bottom left corner with her right foot.
Although it was Lloyd-Smith's moment of quality that secured the three points, Healy was just as delighted with her side's defensive display. The Robins registered their second consecutive clean sheet, having conceded five on the opening day at St Andrew's just two weeks prior.
“I thought we didn’t start the game particularly well, to be honest,” the head coach told the Robins’ media team after the full-time whistle. “We gave them too much momentum, didn’t get tight enough in duels, and we didn’t have a lot of the ball, to be honest, in that first 25 minutes.
“But I thought that at the end of the first half, we started playing and we started connecting passes more. We created some really good half-chances in that first half, and the message at half-time was that we’ve got to be more ruthless. When we played, when we’d connected and played through midfield, we looked really good, but we’ve got to have an end product at the end of it.
“I thought second half we were outstanding with the ball; I thought we really hurt Southampton. We’ve had so many good chances today, and that’s my only disappointment that it wasn’t more, but I’m really proud of the group because that first game was really tough.
“To concede five goals in the manner that we did, to then go two next games, two clean sheets, that’s a real positive for us, and I’m really proud of the backline because that was a really tough day for them, and they’ve worked really hard. I thought Gemma and Harley, in particular, were outstanding today.”
Sunday's win sees the Reds climb above Southampton and up to fourth in the WSL 2 table after the first three matches of the campaign. The Robins are only a point adrift of current table-toppers Birmingham City, who they will face again on Wednesday evening, this time in the Subway Cup.
The midweek trip to St Andrew's will be City's second of three matches in the space of just six days, with a league game against Nottingham Forest to come on Saturday at Ashton Gate. Given the congested schedule, there could be a few changes in the offing against Blues this time around.
On Wednesday's game, Healy said, "The game will be different. It’s the Subway Cup, a midweek game, and then we’ve got three games in six days.
"We’re going to have to use all our squad, and Birmingham will probably do the same. Obviously, we play again on Saturday. I think the game will look different for sure, but whatever the game is, whatever the competition is, we want to go and make a good account of ourselves, and we’re setting up to win the game; that’s what we want to do.
"So we’ll have to recover quickly, we’ll have to make sure we’re ready to go, but I know everybody is desperate to win games and put some performances together because everyone is vying for a place in this team now."