Spoils shared after Graham equaliser at Birmingham

Kit Graham scored a second half goal to cancel out Abbi Grant’s opener for Birmingham City as the points were shared in our Barclays FA Women’s Super League clash on Wednesday evening.

We started the match positively at Solihull Moors and should have taken the lead with our early chances, but it was the hosts who went ahead through Grant’s header, against the run of play, leaving us chasing the game at the break.

With just over 15 minutes to go, Graham got on the end of a long free-kick delivered in by substitute Gemma Davison to scramble the ball in at the far post as we got our well-deserved equaliser and our first draw of the season that keeps us seventh in the WSL.

Defender Hannah Godfrey returned to the starting line-up having missed the last two fixtures against Chelsea and Everton with concussion.

Coral-Jade Haines, Ashleigh Neville and Rosella Ayane were the other changes made to the side who lost in our last game away to the Toffees.

We looked fired up in attack in the early stages and Ayane should have given us a lead within two minutes after she intercepted Rebecca Holloway’s back-pass, but her effort hit the post, before Graham and Haines squandered chances.

The home side went ahead after 22 minutes when Blues skipper Lucy Staniforth sent a long ball in to Grant who headed past Becky Spencer, who was positioned out of her goal.

Rianna Dean had a golden opportunity to level the scoreline before the break after she dispossessed Harriett Scott but her looping strike went wide of the bottom left corner.

Head Coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros brought Josie Green on to replace Haines at the interval and Davison came on for Lucy Quinn shortly after with both players having a positive impact on play as we searched for the equaliser.

Within five minutes of being introduced into the game, Davison could have scored after she raced down the left flank and drove into the box before pulling the trigger, but Holloway was there to block the ball for the hosts.  

Ten minutes later, Davison, who looked sharp after returning from injury, set up the equaliser. Her long free-kick towards the back post was met by Graham who headed in past Hannah Hampton before the match ended on level terms.

Coach's view

Head Coach Juan said: “We are a team that wants to win games and I’m pretty sure we should have won that game tonight. We are disappointed but I think that’s what makes us who we are. It’s a difficult place to come, midweek, a freezing night and we are still disappointed to only get a point out of it. Overall I think it was a positive performance apart from us not taking our chances. In the first seven minutes we hit the post and had two other chances in front of goal, we need to put those away and we’ve been working on that. We wanted to start the game on a positive and I think we did, we were on top and then suddenly we conceded a goal which came out of nothing, so it is disappointing but at the same time we are new and still learning.”

Match data

Goals: Birmingham City – Grant 22; Spurs – Graham 73.

Yellow cards: Birmingham City – Scott 34, Staniforth 76; Spurs – Neville 30, Graham 67.

Referee: Jane Simms.

Venue: SportNation.bet Stadium (Solihull Moors).

Weather: Light cloud and light winds, three degrees.

Attendance: 304.