• Fratton Park
• 12/10/2025
• Attendance: 2,315

Scorers:

Portsmouth

• Wilding, 10’
• Freeland, 20’

Saints

• Ferguson 24’, 78’
• McAlonie 56’, 90’+6’
• Simpson 71’

Four days after a 1-0 League Cup win for Saints at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium, they face Portsmouth again, this time at Fratton Park in the league. In this fixture last season, Saints put 5 past Portsmouth.

Saints made changes, and, due to the good form of Issy Watts, fit-again Megan Collett was pushed forward, with Elle Brazil dropping to the bench.

• St Andrews Stadium
• Sunday 5th October 2025
• Attendance: A few thousand at a guess

Scorers:

Birmingham

• Ji So-Yun 90’+1

Southampton

• Primus 20’
• Peplow 46’

Mid-table Southampton travelled to St. Andrews to face league leaders Birmingham City in the WSL2, while I sat on the sofa watching the match on YouTube. This looked like it would be a tough fixture. Last season, the Blues narrowly missed out on promotion, and when they came to St Mary’s, they were comfortably better than the Saints.

• St Marys
• 06/09/2025
• Attendance: 3,896
• Goals:
  • Saints 4
    • Primus 9'
    • Goddard 29'
    • Bashford 45'+2, 57'
  • Ipswich 0

I felt really disconnected from football at the end of last season. I guess that’s not surprising after disappointing seasons for both the women’s and men’s teams, the pointlessness of the Club World Cup (which I didn’t watch) and FIFA’s pandering to Trump and all the other nonsense that now comes with top-flight football. I haven’t felt any connection to the England men’s team for many years now, and I was losing any sort of connection to men’s football altogether. However, I really enjoyed the Women’s Euros; the whole atmosphere around the women’s game is so much better and more positive. The England team may have made hard work of some of the games, but their determination, togetherness and will to win saw them through. It reminded me of why football has been such a big part of my life for as long as I can remember.