Bristol City forward Shania Hayles is hoping to continue her good goalscoring form in 2023 and help fire her side to promotion back to the Barclays Women’s Super League.
The Robins went into the mid-season break one point behind Barclays Women’s Championship leaders London City Lionesses while the club hold a game-in-hand on all of their nearest promotion challengers.
Forward Hayles joined Bristol City in the summer and she enjoyed an excellent first half of the season, topping the league’s goalscoring charts with seven goals.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time in a recent interview, Hayles said that she is hoping to reach new heights with her goalscoring in the second half of the season.
“I always wanted to come here and score goals because it is one of my strengths,” Hayles said. “At the start, I think I was a bit rusty because I wasn’t getting many minutes (at my former club) but now, I feel back in form.
“I’m on seven (goals) but I want to hit double figures and maybe match Abi’s (Harrison) record or end the season as the Championship’s top goalscorer. We will see how it goes.”
Bristol City were the long-time Barclays Women’s Championship leaders before falling slightly off the pace at the back end of last year. The title race will go down to the wire but Hayles believes that there is much more to come from The Robins and they have every chance of winning back their place in the top tier.
She said “It’s all to play for at the moment. People will say that because we have a game-in-hand, it’s in our own hands but we can’t really afford to slip up much now, things can change at the top week-on-week.
“I think it will be tough but there’s a lot more still to come from this group and there’s a lot more good football than what people have seen. I think it’ll play into our hands and hopefully, we can end the season strong and get promoted.”
Bristol City have won all of their league matches at The Robins High Performance Centre this season. Lauren Smith’s side will play two of their next three league games on home soil and Hayles sees that as a positive.
“We love playing at the HPC, we always seem to play some of our best football here so that’s a bonus,” she said. “The crowd really makes it feel like home for us.
“The facilities are some of the best that I’ve witnessed so it’s a good place to be. As I have said, the fans help us at home, the surroundings are great and it’s a really nice pitch too.”
Bristol City return to action after the mid-season break when they travel to The Dripping Pan to face Lewes on 10 January 2023. Tickets for The Robins’ upcoming home matches are on-sale now and fans should click here for more information.
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