Championship team Preview: Bristol CIty
- Finley Chung
- Mar 4
- 2 min read
Here at Constancy Football, we are committed to all levels of the women’s game, and the next in our in depth Barclays Women’s Championship previews is Bristol City.
The Robins, who were relegated from the WSL last term, find themselves fith after fourteen games this term, in what has proved to be an incredibly tight fight at the top of the second division of women’s football in England.
The Championship is incredibly tight, with only eight points between 6th placed Sunderland and top of the league Birmingham City, with just six league games left.
At the end of January, City pulled off one of the results of the season, going to table topping Birmingham and coming away with a 3-1 win thanks to goals from Lexi-Lloyd Smith, Ffion Morgan and Jamie-Lee Napier.
Key Players:
Lexi-Loyd Smith:
Young Lexi Lloyd Smith is far and away Bristol City’s top scorer with eight in the league this season and has made her way, matching her own admission, back into the England youth set up. Appearing in both recent U23 friendly games against Portugal and France, something in which the striker said she wanted to achieve.
The 21-year-old, who boasts Arsenal and Chelsea on her CV from her academy days, burst out of the shadows and into the light at Southampton last season, penning a two-year-deal with Bristol City last summer.
Only Isobel Goodwin's goalscoring exploits for London City have outshone
Smith's, and she boasts four assists as well, totalling up to 12 goals and assists in fourteen matches for the former WSL side in a lightning season for the tricky winger.
Jamie-Lee Napier:
Current Bristol City captain Jamie-Lee Napier has really come into her own this season, with the versatile Scot either plying her trade at wingback, notching up big goals and assists this season for the Robins, most notably in the aforementioned win over Birmingham.
Although only 24, Napier has over 100 club career experiences that has seen her turn out for Chelsea, London City and now, the Robins, with an international career that has seen her turn out fifteen times in under two years for Scotland.
Back at the start of 2020, she was named by UEFA as one of the rising talents in the women’s football world, and it looks like she has finally found a home where that can become a possibility.
Amalie Thestrup:
A two-time double-winner in Denmark, Amalie Thestrup is a name that has become more known to fans since her move to these shores back in 2020, when she signed for Liverpool.
Stints at PSV and West Ham followed before eventually signing for Bristol City last season, where she has turned out constantly for the Robins, making close to 40 appearances across nearly two seasons.
Her staggering goal from the halfway line against Durham saw her nominated for Goal of the Month in December, also alongside Lloyd-Smith in a glorious month for the Championship side.
With these three players, Bristol City have youth, old heads on young shoulders and an electric winger who could certainly pull them up the table in the final gameweeks.
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