Jesse Woolley’s goal proved to be enough for Bristol City, who opened their Championship campaign with a 1-0 victory at Coventry United.
The Robins controlled proceedings at the Butts Park Arena against the team who narrowly escaped relegation from the second tier last season, with their only frustration being they did not win by more.
"We’re very happy with the performance and I think we can go a level higher as well," Woolley said. "We’ve got a lot more to prove, but Coventry gave us a good game.
"We had a few chances that we should have put away, but it’s the first game and we’ll build off this. It could have been about three or 4-0 after the first 20 minutes, but at half-time we said it was coming and luckily in the next 10 minutes we had a goal.
"The ‘keeper was doing really well for them, but Abi [Harrison] played that through ball to me and I just thought that I’d have to shoot hard and low, which I did, and it was nice to see it go in the net."
A mistake by Coventry’s Evie Gane in her own area almost handed Bristol City an eighth-minute opener, but goalkeeper Jodie Whiteman bailed her out by blocking Jodie Hutton’s effort.
Whiteman was kept very busy in the opening stages as she was then called upon to keep out shots across goal by Hutton and Abi Harrison in quick succession.
Chances then became a little less frequent for the Robins, but they were frustrated again after 38 minutes when Emily Syme played the ball through for Hutton, only for her shot to be deflected just wide.
Coventry almost hit their visitors with a sucker punch a minute later when Meesha Dudley-Jones’ long-range strike dipped over. But the goal Bristol City’s dominance deserved came three minutes after the restart when Harrison played the ball through for Woolley, who slammed a powerful shot past Whiteman.
Woolley had a chance for a second in the 64th minute when Emily Syme’s corner was not cleared by the Robins, but Alanah Mann cleared off the line for the hosts.
Despite being on the losing side, Whiteman continued to have a fine game in goal as she prevented Shania Hayles from adding to the Robins’ tally.
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