First-half goals from Ella Powell and Maria Faruggia were enough to hand the Robins the victory at Ashton Gate, with Becky Langley’s side set to open their WSL2 campaign on the road to Nottingham Forest Women on Sunday, September 7th.
It was the hosts who looked to make the most of their quick start, with Emily Syme seeing her effort well blocked by Deanna Cooper, following some neat footwork from Farrugia around the edge of the area.
United began to grow into the game as time ticked by, with Emily Murphy showing good skill out wide to pick out Freya Gregory at the back post, but the Scotland international’s first-time effort whistled wide of the post.
However, it was the Robins who took the lead after 24 minutes through Powell, who saw the ball fall kindly to her feet at the back post before lashing a venomous strike, leaving Claudia Moan with no chance in the United goal.
Bristol doubled their advantage four minutes later when Farrugia met Rio Hardy’s ball into the box and found the back of the net from close range.
Minutes before the break, Hardy continued to pose a threat out wide, and her low cross was a dangerous one, which Lexi Lloyd-Smith stretched to reach, but could only watch her effort crash off the crossbar.
Newcastle carved open their best chance of the match right on the hour mark when Molly Pike had a rare sight of goal inside the area, but a top save from Fran Bentley ensured the deficit remained at two goals.
The second-half saw both sides make a load of changes, which saw a more stop-start match, but United continued to put together some impressive passages of play but struggled to test Bentley too often.
With just one minute of second-half added time left, Freya Gregory managed to beat a Bristol City defender outside the area, allowing her space to let fire, but Bentley was up to the task and tipped her effort over.
Newcastle United Women: Claudia Moan, Charlotte Wardlaw (Demi Stokes 53), Deanna Cooper (c) (Małgorzata Grec 83), Aoife Mannion, Freya Gregory, Emma Kelly, Lois Joel (Morgan Gautrat 53), Emily Murphy (Oona Sevenius 83), Beth Lumsden (Lia Cataldo 65), Molly Pike, Shania Hayles (Jasmine McQuade 65)
Subs not used: Daisy Manders
