I am officially 21 years old today. Yes, apparently I am now a fully fledged adult in the UK. Frightening thought. But there are 21 candles to deal with later because first there is some unfinished business from the weekend: one final word on WSL2 Matchweek 3. And what a gloriously strange weekend it was. Newcastle remain perfect. Wolves have remembered that wolves are generally quite dangerous. Bristol City finally got their season moving and decided that one win should involve five goals. Ipswich went to Leicester and successfully outfoxed the Foxes. Nottingham Forest finally found a win. Sunderland and Southampton politely agreed that goals were optional. Six matches. Seventeen goals. Two red cards in one match. A hat-trick. A shock at the King Power. And after three rounds, only one team has a 100% record. Welcome back to WSL2, where calm weekends are apparently against league regulations. Before the football, though, something much more important. Across all six matches, the clubs paid tribute to Matt Beard, one year on from his passing, with applause after 13 minutes — recognising 2013, the year he led Liverpool to their first WSL title. A lovely and fitting tribute across the league to somebody who gave an enormous amount to the women's game. Now, onto Matchweek 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 Burnley Apparently Wolves have decided this whole WSL2 thing is quite enjoyable. Burnley pipped Wolves to the Northern Premier Division title last season, so you can imagine the hosts might have had this one circled rather enthusiastically on the calendar. For roughly half an hour it looked like another tight meeting between the two. Then Wolves spent the final ten minutes of the first half turning the match into a demolition job. Amber Hughes opened the scoring with a header, meaning the scorer of Wolves' first-ever WSL2 goal has now decided one historic contribution simply wasn't enough. Melisa Filis made it two with a long-range effort helped on its way by a significant deflection, before Anna Morphet converted from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time. Three goals before Burnley could get back into the dressing room. You wait years to reach WSL2 and suddenly Wolves are treating the division like somebody has thrown a tennis ball across the garden. They've now won back-to-back WSL2 matches and extended their unbeaten home run to 21 games. As somebody turning 21 today, I can confirm that's a very respectable number. Burnley, meanwhile, remain without a win after three. Wolves 3. Clarets 0. The Old Gold were very much worth their weight in it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Durham 1-2 Nottingham Forest Forest's first WSL2 victory has arrived, but they certainly didn't take the scenic route. Durham started brightly and eventually got their reward through Bayley Hutchison, whose looping finish put the hosts ahead. Unfortunately for Durham, the lead lasted roughly as long as my birthday money probably will. Ten minutes. Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah produced a superb long-range equaliser for Forest before captain Georgia Brougham eventually turned in the winner following an Abbie Lafayette free-kick. That's now three set-piece goals conceded by Durham this season, which is beginning to move from "something to look at in training" towards "please nobody give away a free-kick anywhere within the same postcode". Forest remain unbeaten after three matches and now have their first victory. Durham? Three games. Three defeats. It's a long season, but the Wildcats could probably do with finding their claws fairly quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunderland 0-0 Southampton Now, don't let the score fool you. This wasn't necessarily one of those 0-0s that should be prescribed medically for insomnia. Both teams entered unbeaten and both left unbeaten after a match where the goalkeepers and defenders simply refused to cooperate with the concept of scoring. Former-club reunions were everywhere too, with Sunderland goalkeeper Frances Stenson and Southampton's Grace Moloney both making important saves against their former sides. Freya Jupp threatened for Southampton, Katy Watson was lively for Sunderland and Megan Collett produced a huge defensive performance for the Saints. But nobody scored. Sunderland's perfect start is over, although they remain unbeaten. Southampton have now drawn two matches in succession. So perhaps the fairest summary is: Sunderland: "You shall not pass." Southampton: "Fine. Neither shall you." Handshake. One point each. Next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Watford 1-5 Bristol City Ah. Now THIS escalated. Bristol City lost their opening two matches and apparently responded by saving several weeks' worth of goals for one afternoon at Vicarage Road. The Robins won 5-1, with Rio Hardy scoring a hat-trick. And she didn't exactly ease herself into proceedings. Hardy's opener was a brilliant left-footed strike into the top corner before Bristol produced arguably the move of the WSL2 weekend for number two: six passes taking them from back to front before Hardy finished first time. Watford pulled one back through Saoirse Noonan. At 2-1, perhaps there was a route back. Then someone pressed the big red chaos button. Lucy Lyon brought down Hardy in the box and was sent off. Hardy converted the penalty for her hat-trick. Then substitute Eva Gray was also dismissed after fouling Lotta Lindstrom as the last defender. Nine-player Watford subsequently conceded an own goal before Katie Robinson made it five. So Bristol City went: Lost. Lost. Absolutely obliterated somebody. Subtle. Hardy also jumped straight to the top of the WSL2 scoring chart with that hat-trick. Nothing for two games, three in one afternoon. Efficient. If you're going to open your account, apparently you might as well bring the entire bank with you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newcastle United 4-1 Sheffield United Three matches. Three wins. Nine points. Newcastle United are the only WSL2 team with a perfect record. And they're beginning to look rather serious about this promotion business. Beth Lumsden opened the scoring after some excellent work from Martha Thomas, before Kaitlyn Torpey doubled the advantage just three minutes later. Sheffield United did at least become the first team to score against Newcastle this season in slightly bizarre circumstances, with Anna Tamminen's clearance deflecting into the net off Lucy Quinn. Newcastle's response? Kick off the second half. Wait 11 seconds. Score again. Martha Thomas headed in from Torpey's cross almost immediately after the restart and then added another later to complete a two-goal, one-assist afternoon. That's not easing your way back into the game after half-time. That's Newcastle apparently deciding the orange slices had given them superpowers. Beth Lumsden deserves a mention too. She finished with a goal and an assist and, after three matches, leads WSL2 for chances created with nine. Newcastle sit top with nine points from nine, seven goals scored and only one conceded. Sheffield United, meanwhile, are bottom after three defeats from three. Very different ends of the early table. It's only September. Nobody is being promoted after three games. But Newcastle have certainly remembered which direction they'd like the lift to travel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leicester City 0-1 Ipswich Town And finally, we arrive at Sunday's upset. Leicester entered Matchweek 3 with a perfect record. Ipswich entered without a win. Naturally, Ipswich won. Because WSL2. The Tractor Girls went to the King Power and produced exactly the sort of stubborn away performance that causes managers to spend Sunday evening staring silently at tactical diagrams. Bethan Roe scored the only goal, heading home Georgia Timms' cross just before half-time. Leicester were badly depleted, with captain Sam Tierney suffering an ACL injury beforehand and several other players unavailable. But take nothing away from Ipswich. They restricted Leicester to just one shot on target, protected their lead and made it consecutive clean sheets. So Ipswich have gone: Draw. Draw. Beat one of the early promotion contenders away from home. Not a bad opening three weeks for a promoted side. The Tractor Girls have officially parked themselves in WSL2. Leicester, meanwhile, discovered the agricultural problem with being Foxes: sometimes the Tractor gets you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So where does that leave everybody after Matchweek 3? Newcastle: 9 points Sunderland: 7 Wolves: 6 Leicester: 6 Southampton: 5 Nottingham Forest: 5 Ipswich: 5 Bristol City: 3 Watford: 2 Burnley: 1 Durham: 0 Sheffield United: 0 Three games in, and there is already plenty going on. Newcastle are the last perfect team standing. Sunderland are still unbeaten. Wolves are third after promotion and have won two straight. Southampton, Forest and Ipswich are also unbeaten. Bristol City have gone from zero goals in their first two games to scoring five in one afternoon. And at the other end, Durham and Sheffield United are still searching for their first points. The season is obviously far too young for any grand conclusions, but WSL2 is already doing an excellent job of making the table look interesting. My main findings from Matchweek 3: Newcastle look extremely polished. Rio Hardy has discovered the goals button. Wolves at home remain ridiculously difficult to beat. Ipswich are not here merely to make up the numbers. Forest still haven't lost. And giving Bristol City roughly an hour to warm up before descending into complete disciplinary chaos is, scientifically speaking, not an ideal Watford game plan. That's WSL2 Week 3 finally wrapped up.   submitted by   /u/MonthRemarkable9919 [link]   [comments]