Soccer
Lauren Hemp was honoured to bring up a double century of appearances for Manchester City, as they started their Women’s Super League title defence with a win over Birmingham City.
Last season’s Golden Boot winner Khadija Shaw hit a second-half brace and Mary Fowler was also on target as the newly promoted Blues were vanquished 3-1 on Sunday.
Shaw has now scored multiple goals in 22 different WSL games, a joint record in the competition alongside team-mate Vivianne Miedema.
Shaw also now holds the joint record for the most home goals in WSL history alongside Beth England (51).
But there was also a landmark for Hemp, who played the full 90 minutes as she became just the fourth player to bring up 200 appearances for Man City, eight years on from her arrival from Bristol City.
Steph Houghton, Keira Walsh and Demi Stokes are the only players to have represented the club more often, and Hemp wants to keep climbing the charts in the coming years.
“I’m very proud,” Hemp said. “I’m so happy to have done 200 games and hopefully there are many more to come.
“I was looking back this morning, and I was such a young girl coming into the club, not knowing what to expect.
“And to play 200 games is very special and feel like a bit of a veteran now, even though I’m only 26! There are some amazing people ahead of me in the appearance list so it’s nice to be among them.”
Highlights of our opening day 3-1 win in the @BarclaysWSL pic.twitter.com/638OShEeOA
— Manchester City Women (@ManCityWomen) September 6, 2026
Hemp’s fellow England winger Beth Mead made her Man City debut off the bench, and the former Arsenal star registered an assist for Shaw’s second goal.
Carlotta Wamser also made her first Man City appearance, and head coach Andree Jeglertz felt both players made strong first impressions.
He said: “With Beth, there are so many good players around her. She likes that, and you see that, so she will contribute to more goals.
“She needs to learn how they are playing, and they need to learn how she is playing and that takes some time, but I’m impressed.
“And Carlotta coming in is also great to see. She was running up and down in those 30 minutes and really putting energy into the game. She will be a good contribution to the team, definitely.”
Earlier on Sunday, Arsenal started their campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Brighton, with Lisa Baum’s debut goal in the 10th minute proving decisive.
The Germany youth international, who arrived from RB Leipzig in July, fired a brilliant finish off the underside of the crossbar and in, with Brighton only landing two shots on target as they failed to muster a response.
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