Birmingham City 2
Arsenal 0
Louise Quinn returned to haunt her former club as Birmingham City shocked league leaders Arsenal with a 2-0 win at St Andrew’s on Sunday afternoon.
The captain was one of four Irish starters in a Blues side that climbed off the bottom of the table with their first win of the season.
Fellow internationals Lucy Quinn and Jamie Finn bagged an assist apiece, while Harriet Scott also played 90 minutes for Darren Carter’s side.
Strikers Libby Smith and Veatriki Sarri did the damage for Birmingham at either end of the first half to inflict a first league defeat of the season on Arsenal.
Katie McCabe played the full game at left back for the Gunners and was a threat from set piece but her side were second-best throughout and could easily have lost by more.
Birmingham had lost nine of their ten league games up until this afternoon and had slumped to the bottom following a 2-0 defeat to Leicester City in their final game before the break.
The Blues side that emerged at St Andrew’s looked a much different outfit, however, and it took them just three minutes to hit the front.
Lucy Quinn picked off a loose pass and midfield and sent a wonderful through-ball for Smith to race onto, and the English striker calmly slotted home her first senior goal.
Arsenal struggled to build any sort of rhythm in the opening period and they found themselves further behind just before the end of normal time in the first half.
Finn found space to run onto a Sarri pass wide on the right and she whipped in a low cross that Jennifer Beattie could only direct into the path of the Greek striker.
Sarri still had plenty to do and she opened her body up before sending an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
Arsenal had some more joy after the break and top scorer Vivenne Miedema twice went through on goal before being denied by a combination of Louise Quinn and keeper Emily Ramsey.
Birmingham had chances of their own with Sarri and Lucy Quinn both forcing further saves from Manuela Zinsberger in the closing stages, but 2-0 it remained.
The result takes the Blues back above Leicester, who fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Reading, for whom former England international Natasha Dowie was the hero.
