Lauren Smith urged a record Bristol City crowd to keep the faith and fire them towards promotion after an 8-1 Women’s FA Cup defeat against ‘world-class’ Manchester City.
The Robins suffered a heavy defeat against the Women’s Super League high-flyers as striker Bunny Shaw hit four goals. Gracie Pearse grabbed a consolation for Smith’s side but further strikes from Filippa Angeldahl, Julie Blakstad and Jemima Dahou completed the fifth-round rout.
A record haul of 1,223 fans flocked to a raucous Robins High Performance Centre on Sunday and Smith, whose team sit level on points with London City Lionesses at the Championship summit, hopes turning the ground into a fortress can haul them back towards the top-flight.
She said: “It’s a huge crowd and great to see so many fans here. I hope they come back and see us for the rest of the league campaign as well. It was a tough game against world-class opposition.
"Praise goes to the team because they did their jobs well and we made Man City find different ways round us, but unfortunately they did that and found the back of the net on numerous occasions.
“It’s frustrating at times – but we can look for the positives like the fact they didn’t play through us in the first half.
"It was great to get a goal, get up and retain the ball a bit in that second half and come out with a bit more freedom. That was one of our objectives, but it opened up in the second half.”
Jamaican ace Shaw completed a quick-fire first-half hat-trick for the third-place WSL visitors before Swedish star Angeldahl gave the Robins a mountain to climb at the break.
Bristol City made a bright start to the second period but conceded once again when Blakstad pounced on a parried Fran Bentley save to net a fifth.
The Robins pulled one back shortly after when Pearse headed home from Abi Harrison’s free-kick to give the capacity crowd something to cheer.
Smith’s side rallied for another consolation but City racked up three more goals through Shaw, Blakstad and Jemima Dahou to inflict a heavy defeat on the hosts.
Bristol City now turn their attention back to the league and a trip to seventh-place Lewes on Wednesday night. And Smith, whose side have a game in hand on London City Lionesses, told official club channels: “Manchester City are good quality opposition and hopefully they’ll go on and win it.
“They have quality all over the pitch and if you stop them out wide then they’ll create you problems through the middle.
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