Bristol Academy are still in with a chance of winning the League title this season and they kept their hopes alive with a 4-3 victory over Doncaster Belles. Bristol Academy went into the halftime of this match trailing 3-0, which would have been disastrous to the aspirations of winning the title. However, an inspirational half-time team talk from manager Mark Sampson was responsible for the team turning around this match. Bristol managed to win the encounter 4-3 in the end after managing to score all the four goals in the second half itself.

Defender Grace McCatty says that Sampson came into the dressing room in a furious manner and gave all the players a dressing down. This worked to the benefit of the team and they were able to put in a rousing performance in the second half according to the 23-year-old defender. Still, it was an extremely amazing performance from the players to overturn a three-goal deficit in just 45 minutes. Much of the good work came from Spanish international Natalia, who managed to score a hat-trick. She also set up Ann-Marie Heatherson for the fourth goal.

This win means that Bristol Academy will be going into the final league match against table leaders Liverpool with a chance to win the title.

“The manager came in and rather than shouting at us, the words he gave us inspired us. It made us realise that if we didn’t go out and win then that was our season over. We knew we had 45 minutes to give our all. It was the realisation that it was in our hands. The fact that Arsenal can’t win it now is good for the game. I’ve been at this club seven years so to see the journey we’ve been on it would be unbelievable to win,” said the 23-year-old.