London City Lionesses survive Birmingham comeback to win WSL promotion | OneFootball

As the season ticked into its final few seconds, we still did not know who was going up. The league could scarcely have hoped for a more engrossing finale. Ultimately, by the finest of margins, London City Lionesses were promoted to the Women’s Super League after an outstanding individual goal from Isobel Goodwin helped them edge to a dramatic 2-2 draw away to their nearest title rivals Birmingham City, who were within a whisker of completing what would have been a comeback for the ages.

Goodwin’s stunning long-range strike and a Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah header put the visitors 2-0 up and Birmingham, backed by a club-record crowd of 8,749, knowing they had to win to be promoted, fought back valiantly in the final 27 minutes through Emily van Egmond’s header and Cho So-hyun’s volley – four minutes from time – to set up a frantic finish but the visitors clung on to the draw they needed to clinch top spot.

Owned by Michele Kang, Lionesses will be the WSL’s first independently run club and the wealthy American businesswoman has made no secret of her intention to turn them into a Champions League force. She was front and centre in the team’s celebrations, even carrying the trophy on to the pitch before it was presented, and stood side-by-side with the captain Kosovare Asllani as the Swede hoisted the silverware. Afterwards, a delighted Kang told TalkSport: “When I first came to England and bought London City, a lot of people were concerned for me and were saying: ‘How can she do this? There’s no men’s team, you need a men’s team to draw the brand power, fanbase and resources – an independent team can’t do it.’ Well, we are proof that, with the proper investment and focus, anything is possible.”

Her cash injection in the past two transfer windows in particular brought the English women’s second tier into uncharted territory and therefore it was perhaps fitting that it should be Goodwin, the division’s record signing – purchased for a fee believed to be in excess of £100,000 from Sheffield United – who played a key role in this promotion decider. The 22-year-old former Aston Villa forward She produced a goal-of-the-season contender to open the scoring, skilfully evading two challenges before launching a powerful strike from long range that flew into the top corner. After the game a beaming Goodwin told Sky Sports: “I can’t believe it. I’m so happy to get over the line. I don’t think I’ve ever scored a goal like that in my life.”

Kang, who also owns the record eight-times women’s European champions Lyon and the NWSL side Washington Spirit, was in the executive boxes at a noisy St Andrew’s, sitting near to Birmingham’s owner Tom Wagner, in what was a clash between the second tier’s two big-spending promotion rivals, with the league’s chief executive Nikki Doucet and chair Dawn Airey also in attendance.

The game was the first in the history of the English women’s second tier to be broadcast live by Sky Sports, such was the magnitude of the occasion with promotion on the line, and viewers were rewarded with a box-office finale as Birmingham pushed for a winner in 10 minutes of second-half stoppage time.

Both teams had efforts cleared off the line in a tense first half, with firstly Boye-Hlorkah denying Van Egmond, before Birmingham’s Rebecca Holloway did well to hook away a Boye-Hlorkah effort at the other end. Goodwin also forced Adrianna Franch into a fine low save before the break. After Goodwin’s stunning opener, Boye-Hlorkah headed inside the far post from a corner, before Van Egmond gave the hosts’ hope from close range and then the substitute Cho had them believing, when she volleyed in superbly.

After his team survived 10 minutes of stoppage time, Lionesses’ head coach, Jocelyn Prêcheur, looked emotionally drained when speaking to reporters and said: “It means a lot. This is the magic of the project. I was so satisfied to give her [Kang] this gift, this promotion, because people cannot really realise what she’s doing right now for women’s football. She’s really changing the game.”

As her teammates danced and sang on the pitch, the Republic of Ireland left-back Megan Campbell, formerly of Manchester City and Liverpool, who joined London City in 2023, said the club’s ambitions have no bounds. “There’s no ceiling for this club. You’ve got a fantastic owner in Michele Kang, who wants to support women’s football, who wants to promote the women’s game and do what she can for it, and when you’ve got someone like that in charge, the world’s your oyster.”

Header image: [Photograph: Molly Darlington/The FA/Getty Images]