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Bristol Post
Bristol Post
Sport
David Byrom

'Embarrassing' - Bristol Rovers and Bristol City fans debate who can claim history of women's team

Bristol Rovers relaunched their Gas Girls team this season to great success.

Rovers won every game of their debut season in the Gloucestershire County Women’s Football League Division One, having scored 45 goals and conceding just six in their 11 games.

It was the first time that a women's team has worn the blue and white quarters of Rovers since 2005, when the club were forced to withdraw funding from their ladies side, which had been set up in 1998 following a merger with Welsh side Cable-Tel.

Yet the women's team continued under the name of Bristol Academy, before being renamed Bristol City WFC in 2016.

It is a convoluted history that has seen the women's team go from one side of the city to the other - and a tongue-in-cheek social media post has prompted a debate over who can lay claim to the club's past.

Rovers Women's Twitter page shared a video of the original team booking their place in the 2001 FA Cup semi-finals courtesy of a 1-0 win over Aston Villa in front of 3,000 fans at the Memorial Stadium.

The footage prompted memories from Gas fans, one of whom said it was an 'I was there moment'.

Yet a fan page for Bristol City Women then cheekily laid claim to the history.

They tweeted: "Some brilliant footage here of our first ever appearance in the Women's FA Cup when we were Gas Girls."

It was a tweet that caused a stir among Rovers fans, who argued that the two clubs are completely different.

David: Different club, you're MK Dons.

Mike: This is pure mental.

Rob: Classless, plastic club. Make your own history.

George: Embarassing.

Jason: The cheek of this, mind.

Avin: I was there, you weren't.

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