Birmingham City go clear at top of Barclays Women’s Championship | OneFootball

Birmingham City’s Lily Agg celebrates Neve Herron’s goal. (Claire Jeffrey/SPP)

Birmingham City won the clash of the Barclays Women’s Championship top two, Portsmouth claimed their very first point at the eighth attempt.

Southampton 1-1 Durham Bristol City 2-0 Newcastle United London City Lionesses 1-2 Birmingham City Portsmouth 1-1 Sheffield United Sunderland 2-1 Blackburn Rovers

Birmingham City moved three points clear at the top with victory at second-placed London City. The Blues were one up before the half-hour mark, Simone Magill’s looping effort coming back off the bar and Gemma Lawley knocking the the rebound. The advantage was doubled deep into first-half stoppage time, Rebecca Holloway’s free kick headed in off the bar by Neve Herron. Georgia Brougham gave the Lionesses late hope when halving the deficit in the 79th minute.

Durham equalised on 85 minutes to draw at Southampton and stay two points above them in the table, while level on points with London City in second. The Saints had led since the 19th  minute when Aimee Palmer opened the scoring, but Mollie Lambert replied to deny the hosts the win.

Bristol City beat Newcastle United to leapfrog them into fifth place and sit goal-difference short of Southampton in fourth. City struck on the stroke of half-time, Emily Syme with the cross and Mari Ward with the finish. The within a couple of minutes of the restart went two up, when Lexi Lloyd-Smith reacted first in the area to slide the ball into an empty net.

Sunderland beat Blackburn 2-1 to put nine points between themselves and the bottom three, which includes Rovers. Katie Kitching found the bottom corner of the net for the Black Cats in the first half but Emma Taylor equalised just before the break. Libbi McInnes played Eleanor Dale through to fire Sunderland 2-1 up with what proved to be the decider.

Portsmouth picked up their first ever point in the Championship when hosting Sheffield United. Maria Farrugia gave the Blades a 20th-minute lead from Jacqui Hand’s cross, Pompey levelled through Lily Dent with 26 minutes to play with just their second goal of the season.

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