2021–22 FA Women's Championship

FA Women's Championship 2021–22
Season information
Winners	Liverpool
Promoted	Liverpool
Relegated	Watford
Season statistics
Matches played	126
Goals scored	355
Average	(2.82 per match)
Top goalscorer	Abi Harrison (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Liverpool 6–1 Sheffield United (24 April 2022)
Biggest away win	Blackburn Rovers 0–6 Liverpool (9 January 2022)
Highest scoring	Crystal Palace 4–3 Bristol City (29 August 2021) Liverpool 6–1 Sheffield United (24 April 2022)
← 2020–21	2022–23 →

The 2021–22 FA Women's Championship was the fourth season of the rebranded FA Women's Championship, the second tier of women's football in England. It was renamed from the FA WSL 2 which was founded in 2014.

On 3 April 2022, Liverpool clinched the league title with a 4–2 win over Bristol City, their 19th consecutive league match unbeaten dating back to a 1–0 defeat at the hands of London City Lionesses on 29 August 2021, the opening game of the season. The result earned Liverpool promotion to the top-flight FA WSL after a two season absence.

On 1 May 2022, the final day of the season, Watford were relegated to the FA Women's National League after only one season in the Championship following a 1–0 defeat at home to relegation rivals Coventry United. Watford started the day two points ahead of Coventry knowing a draw would secure their Championship status. Coventry had not been off the bottom of the table since they were handed a 10 point deduction on 6 January 2022. A 90+7 minute free kick from Mollie Green was the only goal of the game at Vicarage Road as Coventry United finished the season on an eight-game unbeaten streak to remain in the second tier.

Teams

Twelve teams competed in the Championship for the 2021–22 season, an increase of one team from the previous season. This was a planned progression of the restructuring of the English women's game, a move prompted to provide for a fully professional Women's Super League (WSL) starting with the 2018–19 season. The expansion was originally scheduled from the 2019–20 season but the demotion of Yeovil Town directly from the WSL to the third-tier in 2019 and then the season's curtailment the following year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic had twice delayed this.

Movement between the WSL and Championship was granted on purely sporting merit as both the 2020–21 FA WSL and Championship seasons were completed in full. Leicester City earned promotion and their place was taken by Bristol City who were relegated after finishing bottom of the WSL. London Bees finished bottom of the 2020–21 Championship and were relegated to the National League. Upward movement from the National League was granted via application based on a set criteria including points-per-game over the previous two seasons in order to support the stability and integrity of the women's football pyramid after the previous two National League seasons had both been curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Sunderland were promoted from the National League North and Watford were promoted from the National League South.

On 24 December 2021, directors at Coventry United confirmed the club was going into voluntary liquidation. They had accelerated the team into becoming fully-professional prior to the start of the season. With a formal deadline set for 4 January 2022, investor Lewis Taylor made a bid to acquire the club and clear the debts to ensure the club could complete the season. The offer was accepted and the club rescued although the FA handed down a 10 points deduction for triggering an insolvancy event.

Team	Location	Ground	Capacity	2020–21 season
Blackburn Rovers	Bamber Bridge	Sir Tom Finney Stadium	3,000	09 !9th
Bristol City	Failand	Robins High Performance Centre		1 !WSL, 12th
Charlton Athletic	Bexley	The Oakwood	1,180	08 !8th
Coventry United	Coventry	Butts Park Arena	4,000	10 !10th
Crystal Palace	Bromley	Hayes Lane	5,000	07 !7th
Durham	Durham	Maiden Castle	3,000	02 !2nd
Liverpool	Birkenhead	Prenton Park	16,547	03 !3rd
Lewes	Lewes	The Dripping Pan	3,000	05 !5th
London City Lionesses	Dartford	Princes Park	4,100	06 !6th
Sheffield United	Sheffield	Olympic Legacy Park	2,000	04 !4th
Sunderland	Hetton-le-Hole	Eppleton CW	2,500	12 !WNL North, N/A
Watford	Kings Langley	The Orbital Fasteners Stadium	1,500	11 !WNL South, N/A

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Bristol City	Matt Beard (interim)	End of interim period	13 May 2021	End of season (FA WSL, 12th)	Lauren Smith (interim)	21 June 2021
Liverpool	Amber Whiteley (interim)	End of interim period	13 May 2021	End of season (3rd)	Matt Beard	13 May 2021
Lewes	Simon Parker	Sacked	12 October 2021	8th	Craig Gill (interim)	13 October 2021
Watford	Clinton Lancaster	Sacked	31 December 2021	12th	Gifton Noel-Williams (interim)	31 December 2021

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Liverpool  (C) (P)	22	16	4	2	49	11	+38	52	Promotion to the WSL
2	London City Lionesses	22	13	2	7	35	22	+13	41
3	Bristol City	22	11	4	7	43	28	+15	37
4	Crystal Palace	22	11	4	7	35	39	−4	37
5	Charlton Athletic	22	10	4	8	27	18	+9	34
6	Durham	22	10	4	8	30	28	+2	34
7	Sheffield United	22	9	6	7	34	31	+3	33
8	Lewes	22	9	2	11	23	24	−1	29
9	Sunderland	22	6	6	10	23	32	−9	24
10	Blackburn Rovers	22	5	2	15	17	41	−24	17
11	Coventry United	22	5	7	10	18	32	−14	22
12	Watford  (R)	22	2	5	15	18	46	−28	11	Relegation to the National League

Source: FA WSL
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Results

Home \ Away	BLB	BRI	CHA	COV	CRY	DUR	LEW	LIV	LCL	SHU	SUN	WAT
Blackburn Rovers	—	0–1	0–3	3–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–6	1–2	2–0	2–1	3–1
Bristol City	3–0	—	0–2	1–1	4–0	0–2	2–1	2–4	1–3	5–1	2–1	3–1
Charlton Athletic	2–0	2–1	—	3–1	0–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	3–0
Coventry United	1–0	1–1	1–1	—	2–3	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–3	0–1	1–1
Crystal Palace	2–1	4–3	3–2	0–1	—	3–1	3–1	0–4	1–5	0–0	1–1	2–1
Durham	3–1	0–3	2–0	0–0	2–3	—	2–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	3–0	2–1
Lewes	1–0	0–3	2–0	4–1	2–0	0–0	—	2–1	1–0	0–2	2–0	1–2
Liverpool	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–0	2–1	3–0	2–0	—	0–1	6–1	3–0	1–0
London City Lionesses	3–1	2–3	2–0	2–2	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–1	—	1–0	3–1	2–1
Sheffield United	4–0	1–0	0–0	3–1	2–2	3–1	1–3	0–2	2–1	—	1–4	3–0
Sunderland	2–0	2–2	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–3	0–2	2–2	—	2–1
Watford	0–0	0–3	0–4	0–1	2–2	3–3	0–2	2–3	1–0	0–4	1–1	—

Source: FA WSL
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 1 May 2022

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Abi Harrison	Bristol City	17
2	Leanne Kiernan	Liverpool	13
3	Courtney Sweetman-Kirk	Sheffield United	11
4	Beth Hepple	Durham	10
5	Katie Stengel	Liverpool	8
	Lucy Watson	Sheffield United
7	Amy Rodgers	London City Lionesses	7
	Katie Wilkinson	Coventry United
9	Rio Hardy	Coventry United	6
	Molly Sharpe	Crystal Palace

Awards

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Golden boot	Abi Harrison	Bristol City
Golden glove	Rachael Laws	Liverpool

See also

• 2021–22 FA Women's League Cup
• 2021–22 FA WSL (tier 1)
• 2021–22 FA Women's National League (tier 3 & 4)

External links

• Official website