With us watching most of the League 2 games at Valley Parade we actually get to see a whole lot more away shirts compared to the amount of home shirts we see throughout the season. It is safe to say League 2 has seen some great home shirts released this season but honestly I would have to say I prefer some of away shirts a whole lot more. They just seem to have been kept much simpler and have a bit of a classic feel for a lot of the teams involved in the league. I actually struggled to narrow down to just 5 favourites for this post but here is who made the cut... 

The game kicked off and honestly it was more or less all Bradford in the first 5 minutes or so with them moving the ball around well and getting into some great positions but they were just unable to take those chances and grab themselves a goal. Around 6 minutes into the game City did find the back of the net after some great build up play and a great ball through which eventually ended up find its way past the Ossett 'keeper unfortunately though the goal didn't stand as the linesman put his flag up for a very questionable offside call. There were quite a few questionable calls from the officials throughout the game but this one definitely impacted the game the most. 

Throughout the first half City seemed to be moving the ball around really well but unfortunately just couldn't string that final pass together to find the goal. After about 25 minutes Ossett finally seemed to settle into the game and the game ended up going from end to end. Stube managed to stop quite a few Ossett attacks in the first half with some great challenges, even though the game was end to end it was definitely City who looked the most threatening for the full 90 minutes. Ossett did have a great chance in the first half though when a shot rattled the cross bar but it did look like this opportunity came from a player in an offside position so shouldn't have progressed as far as it did in the first place. 

The first half ended 0-0 however, it could have easily held a few goals if chances had been taken by both teams. The second half picked up right where the first half ended with the game continuing to be end to end. Hames made his first change in the 50th minute with Jakeman coming off to be replaced by Hawkins so clearly attacking was in mind and a bit of an extra boost was needed on the pitch. 

Just 8 minutes after the change a lovely bit of build up play from City saw Stube eventually brought down in the area which resulted in City being awarded a penalty. Stuart stepped up to take this and buried the ball in the back of the net to make the game 1-0 to City. 

After the penalty the game really seemed to heat up a bit with some rash challenges flying in although the referee seemed to be happy to let a few of the challenges go, the full 90 minutes seemed to be very inconsistent on what was being awarded as a foul and what wasn't with some obvious calls not being given. As the game progressed more and more of these challenges were coming in and it gave City a few more chances at goal with a Roberts free kick hitting the post before being cleared away. Stuart came close to doubling the lead not long after however, a brilliant save from the Ossett 'keeper saw the ball go over the cross bar. 

City made another attacking based substitution with Prothero coming off and Lambert coming on, clearly Hames was looking for another goal to seal City's lead and he didn't have to wait much longer for this to happen. With all the harsh challenges being thrown around it was only going to be a matter of time until one was in dangerous territory for Roberts, Zoe put a brilliant ball into the box which was original saved by the Ossett 'keeper who ended up spilling the ball resulting in a tap in for Woodcock to make the game 2-0.

There were a few times where the game did look a little bit scrappy as City were slow to react to the ball and passes were just going to the opposition or an empty space I think if they could have tidied this up for the full 90 minutes City could have easily been a lot more goals up but that sometimes things just don't work right on the day and today was definitely a case of that today. 

The game ended 2-0 and City have made their way through to the next round of the Vitality Women's FA cup, I am looking forward to seeing who we draw in the next round, I think who ever it is we are going to be in for a good game because with how City are progressing as a team we are seeing them playing how they should have been playing for the past few years. 

Player of the match wise me and Liam both agree that Stuart takes this weeks honour as she played brilliantly for the full 90 minutes and never looked like giving up even after some of the knocks she took, she just seemed to be all over the pitch creating some great build up play for the team. 

Bring on the next game, this is a City team I really look forward to going to watch. 

With me being a Bradford City fan it is safe to say we see a wide variety of shirts form the teams we face as cups bring clubs to us that we wouldn't usually see. When you look through the clubs in League 2 at the moment it is safe to say there are some great shirt options out there for the fans that are a little different to what we see from the big clubs, I feel like as leagues get lower they are a bit braver in their designs. So here are my favourite home shirts from League 2 this season... 

I can't quite believe it but 2 years ago today we published the first blog here on Edge of the Area, This was a match report from our trip to watch Bradford City women vs Brighouse Town Women and it was our first step into properly watching the FAWNL and to be honest things have only gone up hill since then. when I look back on old posts I can only see how I have grown in my writing and how much I have grown when it comes to the content on the blog. For two years I have manage to write about the game I have always loved and I didn't even let the pandemic stop that, in fact my love for the blog actually grew during this time as I had a bit more time to focus on what I was creating even though we weren't able to go out and watch games. 

When we launched back in October 2019 we had high hopes of going to a lot of games for the 19/20 season but unfortunately 2020 had other ideas and games were very limited but we still found a way to get content out there we just had to adapt a bit and it worked. The blogs 1st year definitely didn't go to plan but it didn't stop us and in fact it just made us determined to smash all our goals in year 2 which we have definitely done even with the restrictions remaining for a part of that year. Year 2 has certainly been a year of growth and finding out what direction the content will be going in but it has been a fun filled year with so many positives and here are just a few...

Interviewed Some Brilliant People

In year 2 we managed to get through quite a few interviews with players from Bradford City Women and some backroom staff which has been fantastic. Doing this is helping me really build up my confidence and it is really fun when it comes to sitting down and working out questions to ask whoever I am interviewing. I have noticed that over the past two years my confidence has definitely increased and I think this is a big factor in that. 

Sponsored A Player

This was something we wanted to make sure we first started the blog and we managed to do it in year one and again in year two. We currently sponsor Bradford City Women's goalkeeper Hannah Richards and to be honest it is nice just knowing we are helping out a club we have loved for a long time whilst also giving back to a club who has supported us since the very start. 

Got To Work With My Favourite Club

I never imagined when the blog first started that we would be in our second season of writing content for Bradford City Women's match day programmes but here we are on our second year and it is absolutely fantastic. Bradford City women have been really supportive and have provided us with some absolutely fantastic opportunities which we are so grateful for. But we also have to have a special mention to Brighouse Town women who have also been really supportive for this whole journey so far too. 

Met Some Amazing People

Edge of the Area has also helped us meet and chat to some absolutely amazing people in the women's football community. It is amazing just how many great people are in the community and support each so much. There is the whole team at Since 71 who are brilliant and encourage you a whole lot when it comes to creating content and giving you a confidence boost, there is Emma Shone from Man City Women's Fancast who I actually managed to briefly meet at a game which was fantastic. Fingers crossed sooner rather than later I can meet up with a whole lot more of these people at games too especially now it is going to be much easier to get to places. 

So that is a few of the highlights from year two but now it is time to look ahead to year 3 which is hopefully going to be even bigger and better than the previous two years as hopefully we won't be restricted half as much as we have been and we can travel a little bit more, I am determined to get more miles done in my car. So here is what year 3 will hopefully hold...

Attend More Games From Various Leagues

We already have our tickets purchased for a variety of games for Euro 2022 next year but fingers crossed we can get some more games for the tournament. We will also be trying to get to some more FAWSL games as it we haven't seen one of those live for a while. Fingers crossed we can also get to more none league and FAWNL games throughout the course of the year too as there are so many teams on our doorstep where we could easily head to on a weekend when either Bradford teams aren't at home. 

Interview More People 

Fingers crossed year 3 will also be filled with a whole lot more interviews with a variety of people from within the game. I don't want to just stick to players, I am hoping we can cover backroom staff and all the other people who make the game possible or make the game more accessible especially for the women's game. Who knows these interviews might actually get done in person too as my confidence grows rather than just being over email. 

Go To More Events

There seems to be quite a few events going on in the world of football and especially in the football shirt community so fingers crossed we can get to a whole lot more of those. Not only to get the name of Edge of the Area out there a little bit more but to also meet people who like the same things that we do. As it stands we are hopefully off up to Scotland for Football kit con in early 2022 so fingers crossed we can manage to get there as that was originally an event scheduled for year one. 

New Projects

I have been toying with a few new ideas for content recently and who knows year 3 might be the time that finally happens. As my confidence is growing I want to create a few more avenues for Edge of the Area rather than it just been a blog and social media. The thoughts at the moment are either a podcast or starting vlogs etc on YouTube, maybe just one of those would happen in year 3, maybe both will happen on maybe none will but we will soon see. 

Merchandise

Here we go the main event and the main reason behind this post. We are hoping to release a whole lot of merchandise in year 3 and we have a few bits we are considering but to kick everything off for our 2nd birthday we will be releasing a very limited quantity of the custom football shirts in the image above. These shirts have been a long time in the planning and we are really pleased with how they have turned out. We will be releasing more details on Twitter & Facebook later on in the week on how you can get hold of these but for now here is the first look at the shirt. We are hoping that we will be able to order more of these in the near future but for now it is going to be a limited release to see what sort of reaction it gets before we invest in more of these. 

It is safe to say that year 2 has been even better than the first year and we are really looking forward to seeing how year 3 turns out. Let's hope everything goes to plan and we can get out to a whole lot more games from a variety of leagues whilst also carrying on with the content we have currently been creating recently as we are certainly loving talking about shirts. 

Thank you everyone for the support so far and lets get cracking with year 3.