City travelled all the way to Oswestry on Sunday to play against a TNS side who have been struggling to complete fixtures recently. The game was played on rubber crumb at a great venue and City started brightly. Utilising the perfect playing surface City played some great passing football. TNS found it very hard to get the ball off City whose first touch and passing ability was definitely on show. An early encounter by City saw Vicky Lines get a shot off on her left foot but it was straight at the keeper after a good build up.

City started to put the pressure on and Natasha Meade picked up the ball wide left and cut inside before picking out a lovely 30 yard pass into Hannah Barrett who controlled on her chest and slotted the ball into the corner to score a goal on her debut for City. In central midfield Rachel Williams, Remi Allen and Barrett were all breaking up play well and really dominating the centre of the park working some great passing moves. One of which saw a quick switch find Allen in space 30 yards out and she hit well but the keeper saved comfortably. Lauren Impey was marshalling the back line well with Katy Morris and winning everything in the air. One ball played through saw Impey intercept and go on a mazy run straight down the middle where she linked up well with Meade whose shot went just wide. City had another chance just after where Morris this time cleared well to Barrett who played a lovely ball into Lines whose shot wasn't hard enough o test the keeper.

City had a rare switching off moment where a quick forward ball by TNS wasn't dealt with properly and keeper Sophie Le Gros had to come out to make a good save one v one. The ball came off Le Gros and dropped into the midfield area where TNS had two players coming through unopposed, one of which hit a shot on target as Le Gros was trying to recover to put the teams on level terms. City gained control again after this but were really lacking an edge in the final third where finishing was concerned. Rachel Williams made a good run through and was clipped in the box which was definitely worth an appeal but the referee didn't give the penalty.

Second half was much the same it appeared that with somewhere near 85% of possession City just couldn't finish. The possession was brilliant but the final ball was poor and it wasn't until City changed formation and added the zest of Helen Shipman on the left and Zira Handley on the right that anything really positive started to happen. Handley and Shipman's pace was proving all sorts of problems and countless crosses into the box just couldn't be converted and to be fair the TNS keeper was also having a good day. City finally went ahead when Leah Rawle delivered another one of many good corners only this time Williams rose above the rest to head home and allowed City to breathe a sigh of relief. The game finished 2 - 1 and City played well in certain areas but struggled to finish but another 3 points and going well in the league.

City have Leafield (A) in the FA Cup on Sunday 28th October at Triplex Sports Club, Eckersall Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham. 1.30pm KO come and support our Women's Cup campaign!

Report By Rehanne Skinner