By Reading FC

Royals to meet West Ham, Charlton and Brighton

The groups have been draw for the FA Continental Tyres League Cup – and Reading FC Women are due to face West Ham, Charlton and Brighton.

In a slightly different format to previous years, this year there are 23 teams are drawn into groups of four (with one group of three), and regionalised into North/South sections.

The Royals have avoided the biggest of threats in the grouping – Chelsea and Arsenal have been pooled together in Group B, along with London City Lionesses and Tottenham in an all-London group.

There is also a well-poised group full of derbies in the northern section, as the two clubs from each Manchester and Liverpool will all meet in Group C.

Fellow FA Women’s Super League sides West Ham and Brighton will meet Reading in the Group D fixtures, along with Charlton – who finished bottom of the FA Women’s Championship in 2019-20.

Based on league positions last term, that makes the Royals favourites to progress - but there will be stiff competition from the other three teams as the quality improves year-on-year in England.

Reading reached the Quarter-Final stage last year, only falling late to a Kim Little goal for eventual-finalists Arsenal. That made it three straight appearances in the knock-outs since the change in format for the Royals, having reached the same stage the previous year and the Semi-Final in 2017-18.

Full information about the Conti Cup groups will follow soon – including more details about the competition format for the knock-out stages, as well as confirmation of our fixture dates and venues.

These are the groupings for this year's competiton...

Group A
Coventry United
Aston Villa
Sheffield United
Durham

Group B
Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal
London City Lionesses

Group C
Liverpool
Manchester United
Everton
Manchester City

Group D
West Ham United
Charlton Athletic
Reading
Brighton & Hove Albion

Group E
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Leicester City

Group F
Lewes
London Bees
Bristol City
Crystal Palace