BIRMINGHAM City Ladies suffered a 2-1 Valley Stadium defeat at the hands of newly-promoted Liverpool.

Blues were undone as they chased victory against one of the league's supposed lesser lights.

After conceding a brilliantly taken opener from Gill Hart in the 24th minute, City levelled at the start of the second half through a needless Gayle Formston own goal.

But as the hosts chased a winner it was Liverpool who recorded their first victory of the season as Cheryl Foster and goalscorer Jade Thomas strolled through the City back line with 20 minutes to go.

Blues are without a fixture on Sunday because of opponents Leeds' England u19s commitments. They are next in action at Blackburn on Thursday, September 27.

Headless Cross Ladies played host to Knowle when their planned fixture with Birmingham Athletic was cancelled at the last minute due to their FA Cup committments.

Cross dominated the first 30 minutes of the match and created a number of chances through Mandy Ellicott, Elaine Frampton and Kirstie Robins.

The pressure finally paid off when player of the match Ann-Marie Reddish played a through ball from the centre of the park into the path of Robins who slotted into the bottom corner.

The goal seemed to wake Knowle up and, for the remainder of the half, the visitors piled on the pressure.

With just seconds to go before the break, Knowle were awarded a corner which somehow ended up in the back of the net.

A scrappy second half saw the bulk of the play stuck in midfield.

Cross' first chance came when Gayle Wright played a long ball over the Knowle defence. Ellicott was first to the ball but saw her shot well saved by the Knowle keeper.

But it was from the corner that the visitors broke upfield and netted the winner.

Headless Cross thought they had equalised in the last ten minutes when Wright saw her shot cannon off the post.

Manager Mandy Hill said: "Today's performance was disappointing as we just couldn't seem to settle after we scored the first goal.

"We need to improve on today's performance and think about what we did wrong and hopefully we can put this right next week."

Headlesss Cross are at home at Studley FC on Sunday when they play host to Dudley United, league newcomers following their switch from Division One North.