Liverpool Women Bring Home 3-2 Win Against Celtic Women In Another Preseason Friendly

The FA Women’s Championship season starts a full two weeks after the Premier League this year, so the Liverpool Women’s squad continue with their preseason preparations ahead of another tough campaign towards promotion after falling short last season.

Those preparations included another friendly, this time Celtic Women traveled down to the Solar Campus for a closed doors match to keep the women on their toes, ending in an exciting 3-2 win.

Judging by the scoreline alone it was a thriller of a match that would’ve been great to share with the rest of the fans. With new signings, a returning manager (even back from the isolation period after testing positive for Covid-19), and a new opponent, there should’ve been excitement to match the preseason matches at Anfield for the men’s team.

Rachel Furness continued her rehab after breaking her leg back in April, and that’s all that the club website had to say about it. She just got “valuable minutes under her belt” and that’s all we get from a fan favorite player returning from a horrific injury.

Truly the most frustrating thing is that while the grassroots efforts to support the Women’s team have swelled — there’s a Supporters group and everything — there is still so much that hasn’t changed.

The official match report for this friendly was four sentences on the club website. Despite the excitement over the new signings, the return of Matt Beard to manage the team, even an exciting draw against Manchester United a couple weeks ago, it feels as if there is still very much left to be done. Feels as if the club couldn’t find someone to go across the river to watch this friendly to get an accurate view of it.

Ashley Hodson opened up the scoring for the Reds, Melissa Lawley made it two, and new recruit Rianna Dean from Tottenham Hotspur made it three. And that’s about the extent of the information given to us.

In truth, I’ve tried to give the club the benefit of the doubt lately. There is (hopefully) a lot of work going on behind the scenes that will better the Women’s side of things that we as fans aren’t privy to. That’s fair, right? There’s contract details I’m not allowed to know, etc. That’s fine.

And then something small like this will happen. Even better, something like this that shouldn’t happen, if the club really is working towards making the fans think that they are more involved, happens. Something like this, that could have easily been avoided.

So then who would I be, as a very vocal critic and supporter of the club and the women’s side in particular, if this very small moment didn’t get called out? If I am ready to celebrate their choices, give them the benefit of the doubt, and ignore this misstep? I don’t think I’d be the supporter I’d want to be.

There’s still time to do better. There’s two weeks and change until the next season starts and the battle for promotion begins in earnest. Would be great to see the club continue to support the Women’s team while they fight for that top spot.