Bristol City Women’s 3-0 win over Durham Ladies both flattered and deceived, but if there were two players who ensured that the Robins remained on the right side of both descriptions, January loanees Gracie Pearse and Grace Clinton were convincing figures.
On loan from WSL sides Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United respectively, Pearse and Clinton injected a vital sense of decorum to a final scoreline that initially required a scrappy own-goal through Durham’s Becky Salinki to separate the two teams after a chary, disjointed first-half.
Such is the character required of a team gunning for promotion to women’s football’s promised land that the underwhelming 45 minutes shook itself into an exercise in dominance. It’s a narrative that has become familiar for Smith’s WSL promotion-hunting side whenever they face more physical, counter-attacking sides occupying the Championship table’s lower berths: riding out the first-half before taking control of the second.
