Lumsden seals a brace to bag 3 points against the Robins.

A hard fought win for Newcastle today as Kingston Park saw them beat Bristol City with a 3-2 victory. 

Both teams managed to bag their first goals of the day within seconds of each other, with Newcastle's Beth Lumsden opening the scoring for the day at 7 minutes, before Malaika Meena managed to put one in the back of the opposite net just seconds later. There were a large number of shots from both teams, with both teams scoring all goals that were on target. 

After 5 weeks away from Kingston Park and the home crowd, Newcastle’s Beth Lumsden scored a brace within 16 minutes, putting the Magpies ahead despite the first Bristol goal coming just seconds after her first. Lumsden’s goal came with an assist from Welsh international Lois Joel, who alongside Irish international Emily Murphy, smartly pushed the ball to the wing, where Lumsden managed to curl the ball into the top corner of the net. The same trio pulled through with Newcastle’s second goal. 

Up until the one hour mark, both teams seemed to cancel each other out in terms of shots, both goalkeepers were hardly troubled until Freya Gregory managed to get the ball into Bristol City’s box, but after passing to Jasmine McQuade, her effort was fizzled out. 

Both teams failed to get the next goal for a while, until Bristol managed to pull one back after a corner, with Rodgers heading the ball into the net, making the score 2-2. However, just one minute after Bristol’s equaliser, Newcastle managed to pull yet another back, as Freya Gregory got the ball back into the box for Deanna Cooper to slot it into the net to score the winner of the game, the Magpies winning 3-2. 

This leaves both teams in the same positions as pre-game in the Championship table; Newcastle in 7th and Bristol in 5th, Newcastle still being 2 games behind the majority of the teams in the league. Despite currently sitting in 7th, Newcastle have done enough to stay in the Championship league next season, unlike Portsmouth, who were also promoted at the end of last season, who are currently bottom of the league and are at risk of relegation at the end of the season.