The 2022-23 Barclays Women's Championship (BWC) campaign kicks off at the weekend, with three London teams having genuine title pretensions.
Birmingham City go into it as favourites after relegation from the Premier League last term.
City boss Darren Carter has made eight summer signings, including Charlie Devlin from Leicester City and Ashley Hodson from Liverpool, both on loan, in an attempt to bounce back at the first attempt.
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They will face strong competition for the sole promotion spot from Bristol City, Sheffield United and Durham. However, their main threat may well be London City Lionesses, who finished second last season behind the Reds after signing off with four successive wins.
The Lionesses have raided fellow London clubs Charlton and Crystal Palace to sign Millie Farrow and Lois Heuchan as they aim to go one better this season.
Palace were just four points back in fourth and also have designs on promotion in what should be a wide-open title race, while Charlton have added 11 new faces as they aim to improve on last season’s fifth-placed finish.
Interest in the women’s game has never been higher following on from England’s European Championship success in the summer and one of the venues for the tournament, St Mary’s Stadium, is hosting an opening-day clash. Charlton are newly promoted Southampton’s visitors in Saturday’s only game, with five more matches taking place on Sunday. The pick of those is Palace’s trip to Princes Park to face London City.
In a tough opening to the campaign, the Lionesses then have to travel to Charlton Athletic the following weekend.
You can find your nearest game from the list below, along with how to obtain tickets.
If you can't make it in person, you can still watch the action unfold, with all matches in the BWC available live on The FA Player .
Match week 1
Saturday, August 20
Southampton vs Charlton Athletic
St Mary’s Stadium, 12.30pm
Sunday, August 21
Durham vs Sunderland
Maiden Castle, 12.30pm
London City Lionesses vs Crystal Palace
Princes Park, 12.30pm
Blackburn Rovers vs Sheffield United
Ewood Park, 2pm
Coventry United vs Bristol City
Butts Park Arena, 2.30pm
Birmingham City vs Lewes
St Andrew’s Stadium, 4.30pm
Match week 2
Saturday, August 27
Sunderland vs Birmingham City
The Stadium of Light, 12.30pm
Sheffield vs Durham
Bramall Lane, 5.30pm
Crystal Palace vs Coventry United
Bromley FC, 7pm
Sunday, August 28
Lewes vs Southampton
The Dripping Pan, 12.30pm
Bristol City vs Blackburn Rovers
Robins High Performance Centre, 3pm
Charlton Athletic vs London City Lionesses
VCD Athletic, 4.30pm
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