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Club News

Match Preview: Manchester United Women vs Bristol City Women.

08 Jun 2026BCW Media Team

City will be hoping to finish 2020 on a high when they visit Leigh Sports Village and will try to replicate last season’s performance against the Red Devils as they search for their first league win of the campaign.

Last time out:

The Robins ended their run of three games in eight days with a 4-0 loss to West Ham United last Sunday at Twerton Park.

A quickfire double from Emily Van Egmond and Rachel Daly in between Jemma Purfield’s first-half own goal and Martha Thomas’s late finish secured all three points for the Irons.

Gemma Evans was unlucky to see her delicate finish in the first half ruled out for offside whilst Abi Harrison and Ebony Salmon came closest for City near the end, however the pair were unable to get themselves on the scoresheet.

The result moved West Ham up to 10th and five points clear of the Robins in City’s last home game of 2020.

Form:

Manchester United

Last five games: DDWWL

The Red Devils come into this unbeaten in the WSL and top of the league – however, Casey Stoney’s side lost 1-0 in their last match to Everton in the FA Continental Cup, meaning they bowed out in the group stages of the competition.

United have taken the league by storm in just their second season in the WSL – winning seven and drawing two in their first nine league games of the season, putting them three points clear at the top of the table.

Bristol City

Last five games: DWDLL

The loss against West Ham means that City have now lost their last two matches after a string of positive results in the three matches beforehand.

After the hectic schedule of three games in eight days, City have been able to have a week to prepare for their travels to Manchester, and Tanya Oxtoby will be hoping her side can bounce back from their last two defeats to come out on top against United.

Memory Lane:

January 5th, 2020
Manchester United 0-1 Bristol City
Leigh Sports Village

The two sides have only ever met once in their history, and it was City who came out on top in the only clash between the two sides when Salmon’s strike against her former club made sure the Robins left Manchester with all three points.

Salmon opened the scoring for City with a signature goal - the forward used her blistering pace to glide past Abbie McManus and poke past Mary Earps to put the Robins ahead.

It was nonstop pressure from United from that point forward, however a blunt defensive display from Oxtoby’s side was enough to earn City their first league win of the season – a victory that proved vital in their survival campaign.

One to watch: Tobin Heath

The USA international has been a vital part of United’s success so far this season, with the two-time World Cup winner notching two goals and two assists so far for United.

The 32-year-old joined the Red Devils in the summer from Portland Thorns and has fit in perfectly to Casey Stone’s system, with the American winning the WSL player of the month award for November to prove that.

The winger has made 84 appearances for her national side and was part of the USA squad that won the World Cup in 2015 and 2019, so City will have to be wary of Heath when they come against her on Sunday.

Word from camp: Tanya Oxtoby & Ebony Salmon

After back-to-back home defeats, Oxtoby knows the areas that the squad have to improve in and is hoping that her side can be better in certain situations when they face Manchester United.

“I think the goals we’ve conceded in the last two games have been really soft in transition, so we need to make sure we’re better there,” said the boss.

“We’ve had opportunities in the forward third as well and we probably haven’t been as patient and we haven’t been as clinical as we like, so definitely from our perspective there’s two key areas that we can improve on straight away.”

The fixture will be Salmon’s second appearance against her old team since her transfer from the Red Devils in 2019, and the forward says that her side needs to be mentally ready if they want to challenge the league leaders.

“We’ve got to go into every game with a positive mindset, as if we can win it. We can’t look it like ‘oh this is a big team we’re not going to win’, as we proved last season, we have the chance to win any game and we’ve got to go into every game with that mindset.

“The main message we’ve been getting as a team is to stay in the game, because you never know what could happen. We’ve proved that already this season against Reading, we went 1-0 up then conceded but we managed to get a point from it.