It is the opening day of the women's football season in England, and Manchester City have secured a new home venue, the Regional Athletics Arena at Sportcity, viewed here through the glass plinth of the Commonwealth Games Winners Memorial.
This statue, entitled appropriately enough Running Man, stands by the entrance to the ground.
The ground is located right next to the City of Manchester Stadium.
In an area awash with sporting facilities, the building with the arched roof houses the National Squash Centre.
A wide angled shot towards the other end of the arena. The roof is fine on a day like today, but is less than ideal on a wet and windy winter's evening.
Visitors Coventry City have been promoted after winning last season's Midland Women's Combination title, but they are up against a Manchester City team who are well established in the Northern Division of the FA Women's Premier League. Home keeper Danielle Brown clears quickly after collecting this corner, and Becky Grocott finds the space to finish with a neat lob to open the scoring inside 2 minutes.
The hosts look in control, and Krystle Johnson finishes confidently after 38 minutes to put them 2-0 ahead, in an arena that can accomodate 6 500 spectators.
Most of the spectators enjoyed the sunshine in the stand closest to the entrance.
Coventry give themselves hope less than a minute after the interval, Nikki Miles converting Michelle Hickmott's free-kick at the second attempt. However, they are unable to create any sustained pressure to trouble the home defence.
In fact, Manchester City come closer to extending their lead, with Sarah Danby's corner coming back off the bar, and they do wrap up a 3-1 win on 84 minutes, skipper Lindsay Savage's acrobatic effort is cleared off the line by Faye Cardin, but as the ball is played back in Abbie McManus heads home at the far post.
