PREVIEW: Manchester United v Birmingham City

Manchester United will be hoping to pick themselves straight up from last weekend’s defeat at Chelsea when Birmingham City are the visitors to The Leigh Sports Village on Sunday.

Casey Stoney’s side surrendered top spot in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table after falling to a 2-1 defeat at Kingsmeadow.

United boss Stoney signed Norwegian international defender Maria Thorisdottir from Chelsea on Thursday and the player could be in-line to make her debut for The Red Devils against Birmingham City this weekend. In her pre-match interview, Stoney said that forward Tobin Heath is her side’s only injury concern. The United States international was being assessed by a specialist ahead of the match.

Birmingham City head coach Carla Ward is likely to have 14 or 15 players available this weekend. Christie Murray has returned to training but is a long way from full fitness while Connie Scofield, Heidi Logan, Lily Simkin, Abbi Grant and Veatriki Sarri are all sidelined.

The reverse fixture saw Birmingham City put up a real fight against United. After falling behind to an early Jane Ross goal, the Blues netted twice to quickly turn the game on it’s head. Ward’s side eventually went down 5-2, however, that defeat came very early in her tenure and her side have developed significantly since that game.

Manchester United’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Birmingham City is scheduled to kick-off at midday on Sunday and will be available for fans to stream live on the FA Player.

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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