Crystal Palace beat Bristol City 4-3 and London City Lionesses won at Liverpool as the FA Women’s Championship season kicked off.
Blackburn Rovers 2-0 Sheffield United (Att: 324)
Coventry United 0-1 Sunderland
Crystal Palace 4-3 Bristol City
Durham 2-1 Watford
Lewes P-P Charlton Athletic (Covid cases at Charlton)
Liverpool 0-1 London City Lionesses
Liverpool lose to London City
The Lionesses came closest to a breakthrough in the first 45, with Lily Agg hitting the post following a corner.
The visitors who eventually went ahead after Rianna Jarrett scored from the spot after Kenni Thompson was fouled by Leighanne Robe.
Linvoy Primus was close to sealing an away win in the last ten minutes, Harley Bennett cleared before Rianna Dean had the chance to level on 90 minutes.
Blackburn beat Blades
Rovers’ Saffron Jordan forced Fran Kitching into a fine save and the Blades’ Courtney Sweetman-Kirk had a goal ruled out for offside close to half time.
Chloe Dixon got on the end of a cross from Megan Hornby to give Rovers the advantage on 66 minutes.
Aimee Hodgson had an effort blocked on the line but did later double Blackburn’s lead, after exchanging passes with Jordan.
Brown bags Black Cats’ winner
A goalless first half had Charlotte Potts’ powerful header off-target for the Black Cats, while Coventry’s Katie Wilkinson saw her shot deflected wide.
Sunderland made it a winning return to the second tier, as on the hour mark Jessica Brown netted the only goal of the game after Keira Ramshaw delivered the cross.
Eagles see off fightback by Robins
Crystal Palace edged a seven-goal thriller at home to Bristol City, having led 4-1 early in the second half.
Inside the first 30m seconds, Palace’s Siobhan Wilson was brought down in the box by Lia Caltado and Coral Haines converted the resulting penalty.
Charlie Clifford forced home Wilson’s corner at the far post and although Melissa Johnson pulled one back, Palace made it 3-1 at the interval from a Kirsty Barton finish.
Although Haines got her second for the hosts, Simran Jhamat soon hit back for City and Aggie Beevor-Jones headed home to make it a tense finale.
Hepple goal and assist give Durham victory
The Wildcats went 2-0 up by the break, Lauren Briggs following up a Beth Hepple strike against the underside of the bar, before Emily Roberts and Sarah Robson combined to set up Hepple to score.
Flo Fyfe halved the deficit from outside the box by the hour mark, ten minutes later Ylenia Priest was denied an equaliser by the post.
