Bristol City Women 0-1 Birmingham City Women: Aoife Mannion seals win after penalty miss
- Published
Aoife Mannion recovered from seeing her penalty saved to net the winner in Bristol
Birmingham City eventually found a way past Bristol City as Aoife Mannion's wonder goal gave them a fourth win from five Women's Super League games.
Former Blues keeper Sophie Baggaley had earlier saved Mannion's first-half penalty.
But she was unable to keep out the defender's well-struck, dipping effort with 15 minutes to go.
In-form Birmingham stay second, level on points with leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand.
Bristol City - whose unbeaten September had seen new boss Tanya Oxtoby named manager of the month - played with five across the back and proved tough to break down, while threatening little going forward.
September's player of the month Baggaley prevented them from falling behind in the first half, as she superbly palmed away Mannion's spot-kick after Birmingham's Emma Follis had been clipped in the box.
The visitors had earlier gone close when Charlie Wellings' close-range effort was blocked by Frankie Brown.
But the Blues' dominance of possession and territory was ultimately rewarded as Mannion's second-half strike was enough to inflict a first league defeat of the season on the hosts.
Bristol City boss Tanya Oxtoby:
"Credit must go to Birmingham because they are one of the best teams in the league when they are in possession of the ball and they created enough chances to win the game.
"But we need to realise where we are at and I couldn't have asked any more from the girls. They were exceptional, they tried super hard and I couldn't have asked them to give anything more.
"(Goalkeeper) Sophie Baggaley has been on fire for us over the opening weeks of the season and she made a tremendous penalty save, so no doubt we'll be hearing all about that in training this week."
Birmingham City manager Marc Skinner:
"I knew it would be a tough game and Bristol City made it very difficult but I thought we controlled the game throughout and deserved to win.
"The biggest test in football is adaptability. We had people playing in different positions during the game and we were back to the type of Birmingham I want to see.
"This was our fourth clean sheet and the reason for that isn't just good defending, it's because we keep control of the ball - and if you do that, you keep control of the game."