Welcome to Full Time, The Athletic’s women’s football column, a one-stop shop every Monday to discuss the big issues in the game in the UK and Europe.
We’re still a week away from the re-start of the Women’s Super League (WSL) after the long Christmas break, but the FA Cup fourth round was in full swing as WSL and Women’s Championship sides entered the tournament.
There were big ties for teams such as Luton —the lowest-ranked side left in the competition, sitting in tier five — who hosted top-flight Brighton, while fourth-tier Moneyfields FC went to London City Lionesses, from two divisions above. Neither of those sides could get a shock win, but there were still a couple of upsets and surprises across the draw.
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In one of the few all-WSL ties of the weekend, Chelsea showed that life without striker Sam Kerr could prove about as hard as they expected.
The Australia international striker ruptured an ACL during Chelsea’s recent January training camp in Morocco and is now in for a lengthy lay-off. With West Ham visiting Kingsmeadow, all eyes were on how manager Emma Hayes’ side would fill that huge Kerr-shaped hole up front.
GO DEEPER
The key to Chelsea replacing Sam Kerr is not to – Hayes should empower others instead
Hayes’ decision to play Lauren…
