City were embroiled in a strong physical encounter along with plenty of good football being played by both teams.

Early warning signs came for City when a through ball split the City defence with Keeper, Laura Niblett, denying the Athletic forward from scoring. City replied with winger Helen Shipman, getting to the bye line, she squared to Natasha Meade who shot wide.

thletic then had City on the back foot with two attacks which resulted in City having to concede two corners, but they defended well. Quickly followed by good build up play by Rachel Williams and Zira Handley, with Courtney Sweetman-Kirk hitting the post.
With their keeper having to go off injured, it was a ding dong affair with no quarters asked when Athletic put pressure on City and yet again they had to concede a corner, and the flag kick was inswung dipping right under the City cross bar and City's keeper, Niblett, could only touch it into her net.

City then got the bit between their teeth and replied instantly with a superb individual run by Williams as she beat 3 players and got into the box to steer a lovely shot into the bottom corner of the net to draw level.

Chances were coming few and far between now. City then put together a great move when Meade found Handley on the flank, she sped into the box and hit a hard shot that the keeper could only parry out and Vicky Lines was on hand to squeeze the ball home from an acute angle to put City ahead.

City sparked into life again through the industrious Williams whose pace was causing problems for the visitors and she was upended on the edge of the box, with the former taking the direct free-kick but the Athletic keeper just kept it out at the foot of the post.
Half-time 2 - 1

City battled on in the second half and made hard work of their lead at times inviting Leafield onto them too often. City's best move of the second half saw Williams make a surging forward run into the Leafield box and unleash a tremendous ball across the box and with the goalkeeper well out of position City's Sweetman-Kirk had an open goal to hit but couldn't connect properly with the shot which went wide.

The second half went down hill after a poor decision by the referee claiming Remi Allen had fouled a player resulted in her being booked and sent off. Allen working tirelessly up until this point. The rest of the half was end to end stuff but City did their job and deserved the final score and a further 3 points to maintain their top of the table status.

Squad - Laura Niblett, Katy Morris, Harriet Crofts, Leah Rawle, Remi Allen (C), Rachel Williams, Zira Handley, Helen Shipman, Courtney Sweetman-Kirk, Natasha Meade, Vicky Lines, Simone Hamilton, Jade Radburn.

Report By Rehanne Skinner