The start to life in WSL 2 has been slow. After starting with 2 wins, you could be forgiven for feeling something approaching hopefulness; I know I was. But a trip up to Sunderland, after 2 losses in a row, didn’t feel like a great opportunity to turn our form around. Our last weekend in the North East, we played league leaders Newcastle and had to live without the ball and try and hit them on the break. I could almost copy last week’s match report, swap some names and it would work just as well.
A 3-1 loss felt grimly predictable, and Leicester never got out of first gear, or had enough of the ball to do something. Asmita Ale managed to score again, but there was nowhere near enough in this side to get anywhere near Sunderland, and in turn, the top of the table. We spent the whole of last season sitting back, letting in goals and not scoring our own. We’ve gone down, and the same thing is happening again. If Rick Passmoor is allowed to stay in this job, we are sleepwalking towards another relegation, and I don’t think the club cares.
The team was much the same as the loss against Newcastle, but Poppy Pritchard started, possibly a reward for her lively cameo in the last few minutes of the previous match. On paper, this is a good side, with lots of potential that a half-decent coach should be able to get a tune out of in this league. But we find ourselves labouring, game after game, just as we did in the WSL.
We started off as we meant to go on very early on. We looked nervy and weak. Anyone with the ball at their feet was presented with teammates that were little more than mannequins. Their only options were to dither on the ball and give it to Sunderland or lump it long and also give it to Sunderland. It’s clear confidence has been shot by the last few weeks, and it does make you wonder what sort of motivation they are getting in the dressing room.
In just the 10th minute, Katie Keane passed the ball out from the back, directly into the feet of Katie Kitching. Kitching chipped the ball easily over Keane, one of those goals that has to be toxic to a goalkeeper’s confidence. Katie Keane stepping up and distributing the ball with her feet is a valuable part of her game. This kind of thing can happen, but if it was happening because we were playing an exciting, high line and compressing the pitch and making chances, it would feel worth the risk. But having a keeper push up to meet a backline already sat deep invites these risks without the rewards.
The half trundled on, with Leicester’s confidence dipping by the minute. We had a couple of chances on the break. Then in the 24th minute, Asmita Ale scored her second of the season. Missy Goodwin swung in a nicely struck corner from the left, Pritchard got control of it and prompted a 6-yard box scuffle. The ball was ejected out to Ale, who was able to get enough control over the ball to chip it into the net on the far side of the keeper. The goal felt weird; even at the time it didn’t feel like it would lead to any great galvanisation of this team. It felt like delaying the inevitable loss by introducing a glimmer of hope.
Hanging on for another 20 minutes to get into the second half at 1-1 felt like an achievement and it feels silly to say that. Not long into the second half, there was another excellent Goodwin corner that found its way to Ale, who tried to head it but couldn’t quite connect. With hindsight, if that had gone in, that could have changed the mentality of team massively. After a rough couple of weeks, going ahead, away to a team second in the league would have been a huge boost, but I wonder if this team has the grit and direction to get stuck in and make that count.
A few minutes later, Sunderland were gifted the chance to take the lead as Elise Hughes scored her fourth goal of the season, a proper poacher’s goal from barely a yard out. The ball came in from the right-hand side after a rebound from a cross, and much like previous games, the opposition reacted first. We’ve started most games with a centre half pairing of Jessie Stapleton and Simone Sherwood, and they have not looked up to the challenge so far. Stapleton was on Hughes for this goal but let her get to the wrong side of her to score. Someone should have blocked the cross, but Stapleton absolutely has to be quicker to react to this kind of danger.
In the 64th minute, the whole back line got pulled out to the right-hand side by another dangerous Sunderland attack. They had three players in the middle of our box, with only Ale, dragged across from left back to deal with them and Pelgander arriving from midfield to help. It felt symptomatic of a lot of problems in this team; as much as Passmoor seems to shout instructions for every moment of the game, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of defensive nous here. It seems as if he is micro-managing in moments when a defender should stay or go, rather than giving them the tools to better develop their knowledge of this to make decisions themselves.
This result landed us 8th in a 12-team league. We’re 9 points away from the top and 4 away from the relegation zone. Durham and Burnley are so poor this season that we may keep the trapdoor busy for us. If we were having a season to reset and build a strong, young core to this team, fans would be happy to finish mid-table and look upwards. But it feels like Passmoor has the job because he was already in it. Getting relegated and keeping a job is already unusual, but going into the first international break with 3 losses in a row, where we didn’t look anywhere near challenging our opposition and remaining in the job, smacks of negligence towards the women’s side. If Passmoor is still in this job by Christmas, I would bet my landlord’s house on us going down.