Birmingham 1-2 Saints

• 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.

Birmingham started like a team on a mission with a busy passing and moving style, attacking down both wings. Thankfully, the final ball into the box was consistently poor. Saints looked like they could match Birmingham when they got possession, also going for a passing and moving game and trying to attack, but getting the ball was tricky. In the early stages, former Birmingham keeper Stenson was by far the busier keeper, but thankfully, her former employers were not testing her skills with a string of shots that were either off target or straight at the keeper.

20 or so minutes in, Saints won the first corner of the match. Jess Simpson’s ball came in high into the box and looked to be heading just under the bar. Thomas in the Birmingham goal got her hand to the ball, but it dropped just in front of the back post. Primus reacted first and poked the ball through the undefended space in front of the goal. The possession stats were Birmingham 76% Southampton 24%, but the stat that mattered was Birmingham 0, Southampton 1.

The goal gave Saints a lift, and Collet and Brazil on the Saints’ right were combining well, but Sarri and Holloway were at least as threatening on City’s left. Birmingham won a corner, and Saints reverted to type and strung together a series of half clearances before Ellie Hack lived up to her name and swung a leg at the ball, which flew up the pitch, finally giving the Saints defence some breathing space.

On 40 minutes, a long ball up the pitch found Brazil. Brazil was on her own and shielded the ball near the corner flag. The City defender needlessly flattened Brazil, looking baffled when the Assistant Referee flagged for a foul despite the offence being about two feet from the lino. Simpson fizzed in the free kick, both teams flapped at the ball, but the only outcome of note was Hack going for a low header, getting a boot in the face. After the concussion checks and 30 seconds on the touchline, Hack was free to play on. Just before the half-time interval, Birmingham broke on the right, right-back McKenna had options, but chose to shoot and forced a good save from Stenson.

Half-time time Birmingham 0, Southampton 1.

Birmingham made one change at half-time, bringing on Christie Harrison-Murray for Mannu. Saints kicked off the second half, but the ref was not happy and ordered another restart. The ball ended up with the Birmingham keeper, who dribbled up to the penalty spot and passed the ball up the middle towards one of her centre midfielders. It was hard to tell if the pass was unexpected or underhit; either way, former Birmingham player Chloe Peplow reacted first, won the ball, pushed it forward a couple of yards and took a look. Thomas was still in the space between the six-yard box and the penalty spot, and Peplow passed the ball into the top corner of the net from about 35 yards. Birmingham 68% possession, no goals, Southampton 32% possession, two goals.

Southampton looked like the team that had had the riot act read to them at half-time and started to look like the dominant team. Southampton continued to match Birmingham and were forced into their first substitution on 64 minutes with Watts replacing Collet, who had been clattered in a 50-50 challenge. City manager Amy Merricks knew that the game was drifting away and swapped out two more attackers with Louise and Baker replacing Quinn and Crosthwaite on 66 minutes. The change appeared to work, and Saints started to look nervous at the back, with Stenson being kept busy. Former Chelsea player and multiple WSL title winner Ji So-Yun was unlucky to see a top-of-the-box shot blocked and balloon away for a corner.

Both managers thought things needed changing, with both teams making 2 more substitutions at 79 minutes. Birmingham kept pressing and won a free kick on the top of the box. Ji So-Yun hit it into the wall, and the Saints’ low block held firm. Just as it looked like Saints were going to cruise to a 2 – 0 win, Birmingham played the ball down the right and then into the middle. A shot from the edge of the box was well blocked, but the ball cannoned to Ji, who smacked the ball in off the inside of Fran Stenson’s right-hand post. Birmingham 1, Southampton 2 as the 4th official stuck up the board to announce 9 minutes of squeaky bum time.

Birmingham smelt blood, and the game became expectedly frantic. Ji was pulling the strings for Birmingham. The Saints kept clearing their lines, but rarely put the ball into the opposition’s half. Even when they did, the ball just came back as the Southampton forward line was busy being a line of 2 in front of the two lines of 4. With a minute of extra time remaining, Shannon Cooke, one of Birmingham’s centre-backs, decided to launch a rocket from the edge of the centre circle. The ball flew, fortunately, a foot or so above the top corner, and it was questionable if Stenson would have got to the ball had it been lower. Saints weathered the remaining storm, and the match finished Birmingham City 1 Southampton 2.

Saints came away with 3 points against the league leaders and in some ways deserved the win, but if Birmingham had been clinical in front of goal, we could have come away 4 nil losers with little to complain about. It is nice to see a Saints team claw a win out of 31 % possession, and while we looked like a team that had come to park the bus at the end of the second half, we had played the first half with a clear attacking intent. Everyone put in a shift today, and that was a much-improved defensive performance. Stenson was busy and faultless (she would have needed the reflexes of a cat and the reach of a professional men’s basketball player to stop the goal), but rarely pushed out of her comfort zone. For me, the player of the match was Brazil, who worked her socks off, kept popping up to win the ball all over the pitch and offered a real threat when Saints attacked.

Teams:

Birmingham City:

• 1 L Thomas, booked 63’
• 15 R Holloway
• 30 N Heron, sub M Harris 79’
• 6 S Cooke
• 18 R McKenna
• 19 C Cornet (capt)
• 27 V Sarri, sub O Hurtre 79’
• 91 Ji So-Yun
• 16 L Crosthwaite, sub A Baker 66’
• 17 L Quin, sub B Louis 66’
• 37 R Mannu, sub C Harrison-Murray 46’

Subs

• 32 A Baker
• 23 L Bance
• 24 A Franch
• 2 M Harris
• 10 C Harrison-Murray
• 22 O Hurtre
• 29 B Louis
• 11 T McGowan
• 4 L Newall

Southampton:

• 22 F Stenson
• 19 J Simpson
• 6 T Bourne
• 15 E Hack
• 3 M Mott
• 10 M McAlonie
• 8 C Peplow, sub A Akpan 79’
• 14 M Bashford, booked 67’
• 23 M Collet, sub I Watts 64’
• 20 A Primus (capt), sub A Goddard 79’
• 7 E Brazil

Subs

• 4 A Akpan
• 11 A Ferguson
• 5 A Goddard
• 30 E Pettit
• 35 E Roberts
• 49 N Udebhulu
• 27 I Watts