A full look ahead at Pompey's next WSL 2 fixture at St Andrew's, including a closer look at the opponents.
Off the back of successive victories in WSL 2 over Crystal Palace at Westleigh Park and Sunderland away from home most recently, Pompey go into this next round of fixtures, matchday number 9, against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s.
Jessie Gale (90+4') and Meg Hornby (90+8') combined to score late on at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground last Sunday, handing the Blues a third league win of the campaign after 8 games - The same amount they managed to achieve after all 20 fixtures last term.
THIS WEEK'S OPPOSITION:
MANAGER
Birmingham City are led by 31-year-old Amy Merricks, who joined the club on a 3-year contract last April.
Prior to her move to Birmingham, Merricks was England Women’s Under-19s head coach and between April-November 2023, helped the Young Lionesses secure qualification for the Second Round of the 2024 UEFA Women’s Under-19 EUROs, winning all 3 of their Round One fixtures.
Prior to her time in the national team setup, she spent 8 years working at Brighton & Albion, 5 of which were under the mentorship of Birmingham technical director Hope Powell.
With Brighton, she was thrice interim manager and on the last of these occasions was the Barclays Women’s Super League’s youngest-serving boss.
On the South Coast with Brighton, armed with experience from Millwall and Gillingham, as well as a League Manager’s Association Diploma in Football Management, she was originally appointed as development squad head coach and promoted to first team assistant manager a year later.
Merricks holds a UEFA Pro License.
ONE TO WATCH
Ever-present forward Christie Harrison-Murray is our one to watch this weekend.
The 35-year-old is an attacking midfielder and also the captain of Birmingham City.
She’s claimed 1 goal and 2 assists so far this campaign and wears the number 10 shirt.
TOP SCORER
As it stands, Birmingham have 2 players locked as their top goalscorer in WSL 2.
After 8 fixtures, both 27-year-old forward Veatriki Sarri from Greece, and also Batcheba Louis from Haiti, have claimed 4 goals each.
Sarri has 1 assist while Louis has 0.
Their closest competitor within the squad is English forward Lily Crosthwaite - The 23-year-old has 3 goals to her name so far this campaign.
CURRENT FORM
Amy Merricks’ Blues go into this weekend’s fixtures in 2nd place in WSL 2, after 5 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats so far from their opening 8 games.
They have 16 points on the board - 4 adrift of league leaders Charlton Athletic.
Their previous 2 results have produced 1 defeat and 1 win - A 1-0 loss at home to Charlton before a 3-0 victory over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest away from home.
The last time these 2 sides met was back on the 19th of January at Westleigh Park, where Birmingham City came away with a 3-1 victory.
JAY SADLER'S THOUGHTS:
Ahead of Sunday's match at St Andrew's, Express FM's Jake Smith sat down with Pompey head coach Jay Sadler on Friday night's episode of The Football Hour - You can listen back to the full interview below...
Jake will be back on Monday (November 17th) night from 6pm with full reaction to this match when The Football Hour returns with 2 more Blues fans alongside him.
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