Bristol City W.F.C.

Bristol City Women
Full name	Bristol City Women's Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Robins (formerly The Vixens)
Founded	1998; 26 years ago as Bristol Rovers
Ground	Ashton Gate, Bristol
Chairman	Gavin Marshall
Manager	Lauren Smith
League	Women's Championship
2023–24	Women's Super League, 12th of 12 (relegated)
Website	Club website
	Current season

Bristol City Women's Football Club is a women's association football team from the city of Bristol. Formed in 1998 as Bristol Rovers W.F.C., they were renamed Bristol Academy W.F.C. in 2005 following the withdraw of support from Bristol Rovers and increased involvement and academy development from Bristol Academy of Sport (now SGS Sport), part of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College. A second change of name, this time to Bristol City was approved by the FA Women's Football Board in time for the 2016 WSL season. With their home games relocating from SGS College’s Stoke Gifford Stadium to the Robins High Performance Centre and now Ashton Gate Stadium. Bristol City Women won promotion to the FA Women's Super League (WSL), the highest level of the women's game in England in 2016 and stayed there for five seasons before being relegated to the FA Women's Championship in 2021.^[1]

History

Early years

The team was founded in 1998, following a merger between the Bristol Rovers girls' teams and Welsh side Cable-Tel L.F.C.. This merger came about as Bristol Rovers only had girls teams up to the under 16 age group level, so when girls reached the age of 16 they were forced to leave the club. The merger with Cable-Tel meant that Bristol Rovers had a senior squad, and more importantly it gave them a place in the South West Combination league, only two levels below the top flight of women's football in England. This new merged team took the name Bristol Rovers W.F.C. and played their home games at The Beeches, the training ground and administrative offices of Bristol Rovers, located in Brislington.

Bristol Academy playing Birmingham City in 2006

The team, like their male counterparts at Bristol Rovers, were somewhat nomadic in their early days, having played home matches at The Beeches, Lodge Road (home of Yate Town), Cossham Street (Mangotsfield United), the Memorial Stadium (Bristol Rovers), Fry's Sports Ground in Keynsham, The Lawns (Cribbs F.C.),^[2] The Hand Stadium (Clevedon Town), Lakeview (Bishop Sutton), and Oaklands Park (Almondsbury Town).^[3] They finally acquired their own purpose-built home ground, Stoke Gifford Stadium, on land owned by Filton College (now South Gloucestershire and Stroud College) in time for the inaugural FA WSL season in 2011. Since then, all of their home games were played there up until the end of the 2019-20 season, with the exception of UEFA Women's Champions League matches, which have been held at Ashton Gate.^[4]

The name of the club was changed to Bristol Academy at the beginning of the 2005–06 season to reflect the increased involvement of the Bristol Academy of Sport with the club. The team continued to play in the blue and white quarters of Bristol Rovers however, and also retained the nickname The Gas Girls, an acknowledgement of Rovers' unofficial nickname of The Gas.^[5] Bristol Rovers, now in the bottom division of The Football League, found themselves unable to continue financing a women's team in 2006 and withdrew funding. Bristol Academy of Sport agreed to bankroll the team for 12 months, but there were serious doubts during the 2006–07 season that the club would survive beyond the summer.^[6]

In summer 2009 the club had a funding crisis. Manager Gary Green was sacked, Corinne Yorston left for Arsenal, Stef Curtis for Chelsea and Gwennan Harries for Everton.^[7] Without their star players the team finished bottom of the table in 2009–10.

The club were one of eight founding teams in the FA WSL in April 2011, when they moved into a brand new stadium at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College's Stoke Gifford Campus.^[8]

In 2013 the club signed a sponsorship agreement with Bristol City FC and changed their home kit from blue to red,^[9] and three years later the club was renamed Bristol City Women's Football Club.^[10]

In July 2018, the club named Tanya Oxtoby its new manager, moving into the position from being an assistant with Birmingham City W.F.C.^[11]

League history

It took just two seasons to gain promotion to the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division, when the club won the South West Combination in the 2000–01 season under the management of Dave Bell. After this Dave Bell left the club to join the academy set-up at Manchester United, and was replaced by Tony Ricketts.

Tony Ricketts also achieved league success, with the team winning the Southern Division in the 2002–03 season and earning promotion to the FA Women's Premier League National Division. The first season in the top-flight was a struggle, with the team narrowly avoiding relegation. However Bristol Academy established themselves in the National Division with two fifth-place finishes over the next two seasons.

In the 2006–2007 season, the club reached the top spot in November (though defending champions Arsenal L.F.C. had games in hand due to European Cup, League Cup and FA Cup commitments). Arsenal played their games in hand Bristol Academy, hovered between the 4th and 8th places.

Bristol City Women finished 2nd in FA WSL 2 for the 2016 season and won promotion to FA WSL 1 for their 2017 campaign.

They were relegated in the 2020–21 season to the FA Women's Championship where they finished third in their first season back in the second tier.

The 2022–23 season saw Bristol City win their first ever league title and, with it, promotion back to the WSL.

Cup history

In the short history of the team they have reached the semi-final of the FA Women's Cup five times. The first was in the 2000–01 season when they were still playing their league football in the South West Combination, playing in front of a club record crowd of over 3000 at the Memorial Stadium against Arsenal L.F.C. The match ended in a 3–0 defeat. Three more unsuccessful semi-final matches were to follow in this competition, against Fulham L.F.C. in 2002–03, Charlton Athletic L.F.C. in the 2004–05 season and Arsenal again providing the opposition in 2006–07.

In 2011 the club reached the final of the FA Cup after a 3–0 semi-final win over Liverpool. Bristol were beaten 2–0 by Arsenal in the final, before 13,885 fans at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.^[12] In 2013 the club reached its second FA Cup final after a 2–0 semi-final win over Lincoln Ladies. Bristol were again beaten by Arsenal 3–0 in the final at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster.

The team dominated the Gloucestershire FA Women's Challenge Cup in their early days, winning the trophy eight times in their first nine seasons. The only failure to win the competition came in the 2003–04 season when they were beaten in the final by the original Bristol City W.F.C., their first ever defeat to their cross-city rivals. Following the 2006–07 win the first team stopped competing in the tournament, although their junior teams continued taking part.

They did reach the final of the Continental Tyres League Cup Final in the 2020-21 season but were defeated by Chelsea FC.

UEFA competitions

For a detailed international record see English women's football clubs in international competitions

Because of the new WSL, England's UEFA Women's Champions League places were allocated to the FA Cup finalists as a one time exception. Thus Bristol won a place in the 2011–12 UEFA Women's Champions League round of 32.^[13] They started in the round of 32 and were drawn against Russian side Energiya Voronezh and drew their home game 1–1 but lost the return leg in Russia 2–4 and didn't advance.^[14]^[15]

Season by season

Season	League	Position	FA Cup	League Cup^A	Other	Manager
Bristol Rovers W.F.C.
1998–99	South West Combination	2nd			Gloucestershire Cup winners	Billy Gornicki-Bond
1999–00	South West Combination	2nd	Third round		Gloucestershire Cup winners	Billy Gornicki-Bond
2000–01	South West Combination	1st (promoted)	Semi-final		Gloucestershire Cup winners	Dave Bell
2001–02	Premier League Southern Division	2nd of 12	Fourth round	First round	Gloucestershire Cup winners	Tony Ricketts
2002–03	Premier League Southern Division	1st of 11 (promoted)	Semi-final	Quarter-final	Gloucestershire Cup winners	Tony Ricketts
2003–04	Premier League National Division	8th of 10	Semi-final	Semi-final		Tony Ricketts Ivor Gumm
2004–05	Premier League National Division	5th of 10	Semi-final	Quarter-final	Gloucestershire Cup winners	Gary Green
Bristol Academy W.F.C.
2005–06	Premier League National Division	5th of 10	Quarter-final	Quarter-final	Gloucestershire Cup winners	Gary Green
2006–07	Premier League National Division	4th of 12	Semi-final	Second round	Gloucestershire Cup winners
2007–08	Premier League National Division	4th of 12	Fourth round	Third round
2008–09	Premier League National Division	8th of 12	Quarter-final	Second round
2009–10	Premier League National Division	12th of 12	Fourth round	Quarter-final	Granted WSL licence^[16]	Mark Sampson
2011	Women's Super League	5th of 8	Runners-up	First round	2011–12 Champions League: First round
2012	Women's Super League	4th of 8	Semi-final	Semi-final
2013	Women's Super League	2nd of 8	Runners-up	Group stage
2014	WSL 1	7th of 8	Fifth round	Group stage	2014–15 Champions League: Quarter-final	Dave Edmondson
2015	WSL 1	8th of 8 (relegated)	Fifth round	Quarter-final		Dave Edmondson Lauren Smith^[17] Willie Kirk
Bristol City W.F.C.
2016	WSL 2	2nd of 10 (promoted)	Fourth round	First round		Willie Kirk
2017	WSL 1	8th of 9	Quarter-final	N/A^B
2017–18	WSL 1	8th of 10	Fourth round	Quarter-final
2018–19	Women's Super League	6th of 11	Fifth round	Group stage		Tanya Oxtoby
2019–20	Women's Super League	10th of 12	Fifth round	Group stage		Tanya Oxtoby
2020–21	Women's Super League	12th of 12 (relegated)	Fourth round	Runners-up		Tanya Oxtoby Matt Beard
2021–22	Women's Championship	3rd of 12	Fourth round	Quarter-final		Lauren Smith
2022–23	Women's Championship	1st of 12 (promoted)	Fifth round	Quarter-final
2023–24	Women's Super League	12th of 12 (relegated)	Fourth round	Group stage

^A League cup column shows results in the FA Women's Premier League Cup (2001–2010) and the FA WSL Cup (2011–present)
^B There was no WSL Cup tournament during the 2017 WSL Spring Series

Stadium

Ashton Gate

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Ashton Gate shown within Bristol and the UK

After having played at a number of different grounds, the team finally got their own home in 2011 when they moved into the newly built Stoke Gifford Stadium at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, WISE Campus in North Bristol. It was the first stadium in the UK to be developed specifically for a women's football team,.^[18]^[19] They stayed here until the end of the 2019-20 season. After this league requirements saw a move to Twerton Park and a groundshare with Bath City FC. The robins only stayed here for one season before they relocated to the Robins High Performance Centre for the start 2021-22 season. Multiple games have also been played at Ashton Gate stadium.

The club record attendance came in April 2023 when 7,045 spectators watched Bristol City against Charlton Athletic in the FA Women's Championship at Ashton Gate.

The club announced that all home matches would be played at Ashton Gate for the upcoming season.^[20]

Players

Current squad

As of 25 January 2024^[21]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
16	MF	ENG	Emily Syme
17	FW	DEN	Amalie Thestrup
18	MF	CAN	Sarah Stratigakis
22	FW	SCO	Lisa Evans
23	MF	WAL	Carrie Jones
24	FW	WAL	Ffion Morgan
25	GK	ENG	Erin Foley
29	DF	ENG	Mari Ward
30	GK	USA	Shae Yanez
38	MF	WAL	Manon Pearce
39	FW	ENG	Maya Kendall
44	DF	JAM	Satara Murray
31	GK	WAL	Yasmin Davies (on loan at Portishead Town)