Manchester City Women made it three derby victories out of the last three against Man United with a 3-1 home win at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, where striker Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw also set a new club record.
England forward Jess Park was the star of the show on derby day, which saw Man City go top of the Women’s Super League (even despite the fact that her opening goal was found to be offside but ultimately stood in the absence of VAR) it was Bunny Shaw that once again had the landmark moment.
Scoring the decisive third goal at the very start of the second half, the Jamaican number nine didn’t just make it 17 goals and three assists for the season but also broke a club record in the process.
Now having notched a total of 68 goals all told, she surpassed former Blue and Lioness Georgia Stanway as City’s all-time record scorer in the WSL era. More history made in the derby – here’s how she did it:
Bunny Shaw joins the party and becomes the club’s all time top scorer 🔥
Park played more than her part in setting up Shaw, too. A well-deserved Player of the Match-winning performance.
While the visitors were able to get one back through a somewhat fortunate finish from Hannah Blundell, it was a pretty comfortable win for the home side, who are now joint-leaders at the top of the table alongside all-time record winners Chelsea on the same number of games.
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Gareth Taylor’s side are only behind on goal difference by just two, and with his squad now set to play back-to-back derbies as they prepare to play Liverpool Women on Saturday, 30 March, it could end up being a good couple of weeks for the Blues.
Meanwhile, a third consecutive derby day defeat in all competitions (second in the league) leaves Man United Women in fifth and just one point behind the Scousers.
All that being said, another win for City could prove to be a result for the Reds too as they look to climb back into the European places. As for their rivals, they’ll no doubt be fighting until the final day in the race for what would be their first WSL title since 2016, with Chelsea having monopolised the league.
The Manchester Women’s derby at the Etihad this weekend was also the second-highest attendance for the fixture in the WSL, as 40,086 fans turned up to fill the stadium — just a few thousand shy of the record set in the reverse meeting at Old Trafford last year.
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You can watch the highlights in full of Man City’s home win against Man United in the WSL down below:
Featured Images — Manchester City Women (via X)/The Manc Group
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
25th March 2024 
