Sunday 22 September - 14:00

St.Mary's

Saints Women 0 Blackburn 1

|Unusually, I walked up to the stadium on my own. S had run the Winchester half marathon in the morning, and although she was hoping to make it for most of the game, she was, at that point, eating a post-run pizza still in Winchester.

Taking my seat, it seemed weird seeing Saints warming up at the Northam end. I checked my phone to find out the lineup and saw one change on the pitch: Paige Peake replaced Milly Mott, and Kayla Rendell was back on the bench.

Looking up from my phone, I noticed people standing behind the advertising along the front of the Northam stand.

Then more appeared at the Chapel end and along the front of Kingsland, then the Itchen, so they surrounded the pitch. They all held hands and swayed while some awful song played. This was in tribute to a young girl with cancer. It’s unfortunate when anyone gets cancer, but it seems particularly cruel when it’s a child. Why make things worse with such a terrible song?

Then, as the wonderful sound of the Skids announced that “The Saints Are Coming”, the teams came out, did their line-up handshake nonsense, and took the team photo. The brass band did their thing, and then the game started before everyone standing around the pitch returned to their seats. It took some time.

Sunday 15 September - 14:00

Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground

Sunderland 0 Saints Women 3

|Saints travelled all the way to Sunderland, and I watched it from the comfort of my sofa as it was streamed on the new Women’s Championship YouTube channel.

Sunderland suffered a heavy defeat in their first game of the season, losing 5-0 at Birmingham, while, as we know, Saints got a point at home to Bristol City. The Eppleton Colliery Welfare ground looks small, probably not much bigger than Totton’s ground where Saints used to play. It always feels odd that they aren’t a bigger team when you think of the players Sunderland introduced to the women’s game, players like Jordan Nobbs, Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, Steph Houghton, Beth Mead, Jill Scott, etc.

Anyway, a little surprisingly Saints named an unchanged side, the only difference being that Atlanta Primus wasn’t on the bench (she has since gone to Charlton on a season-long loan).

As the coverage began, with the players walking out, “Oh when the Saints” could be heard from the crowd. As happened last season at Sunderland, the effects mics are very near the Saints fans and dugout so that you could listen to all the players and coaches shouting. Sadly, that did mean that you could hear that bloody drum again (if you have to bring that damn thing, at least loosen the skin a touch, you’re not in The Specials you know).

It was nice to see Sunderland in red and white striped shirts, with the stripes on the front and back, a proper football shirt.

Sunday 8 September - 14:00 - St.Mary's

Saints Women 1 Bristol City 1

|Sunday morning, with the season’s first game starting at 2 p.m., S had arranged to go for a 12-mile run. Timing-wise, it wasn’t a problem, but it did mean that S was a bit tired as we walked to the stadium. It was nice to see my old grandparents’ pub, The Engineers Arms, back open. Three blokes were leaving it as we walked past, saying how nice it was.

The crowd is in the Itchen stand this season, so we had new seats. It had been quite a while since we bought our season tickets, and I’d forgotten where they were. As we took our seats in block 5, two players who left Saints for Rangers in the summer, Laura Rafferty and Katie Wilkinson, walked up the stairs and sat behind us. They spoke to a couple of fans and then said they wanted to sit with the family and friends of another player who left in the summer, Lexi Lloyd-Smith, who was making her debut for Bristol City.

Last season’s captain, Rosie Parnell, who has now retired and started working for the Saints Foundation, sat in the row in front of us.

Saints started with five of the new summer signings against a side who had been relegated from the WSL last season.