West Ham Women were beaten 5-0 in the FA Women’s Super League to title contenders Manchester City at the Academy Stadium.
A brace, an assist and a red card from City forward Georgia Stanway was enough to secure three points for City, on a weekend which saw a new WSL attendance record take place.
The teams returned to action from the international break with victories in their league cup games. Manchester City beat Birmingham City 2-1, whereas West Ham picked up a 1-0 win at Reading and were looking to get a similar result at City who lost their previous WSL game at Arsenal.
Opening Goal
City opened the scoring after 11 minutes as Caroline Weir’s corner was headed goal bound by Gill Scott, whose effort was cleared off the line by Hammers’ captain Gilly Flaherty into the path of Ellen White. She smashed in the rebound from six yards out, to score her second goal in two games after signing from Birmingham City in the summer.
Sensational Stanway
City’s second came from 20 year old Georgia Stanway, who scored on her 100th appearance for the club. Stanway started a well-worked move and received White’s layoff to finish off the move in a congested West Ham penalty area with a powerful strike into the bottom left corner.
Moments later, Stanway got her second. A long ball to the right wing was controlled by Janine Beckie, whose pass into the box found an unmarked Stanway, whose first-time finish rolled in off the post.
Last season’s FA Cup winners had already bettered their cup final result against West Ham by scoring their fourth in the 39th minute. Gill Scott’s disguised pass to Lauren Hemp, deceived West Ham’s defence which gave Hemp acres of space on the left-hand side to control Scott’s pass before comfortably finishing at Anna Moorhouse’s near post.
The Second Half
With the game effectively over, City started the second half in a similar vain in which they ended the first half. White was denied her second goal of the day after her curling shot rattled the crossbar in the 48th minute.
Eight minutes into the second half, Tessa Wullaert registered her name on the scoresheet, after Stanway plucked the ball out of the air and squeezing her pass through four West Ham players into the path of Wullaert, who smashed in a fifth for City and her third of the season in all competitions.
Woeful West Ham
In front of a crowd of 2,179, West Ham offered very little to test City’s shot stopper Ellie Roebuck. The East London’s side’s best opportunity came in the second half as Leanne Kiernan won possession and forced Roebuck into making a save from Kiernan’s shot.
In what was an otherwise perfect performance for City, Stanway was given her second yellow card in five minutes after a late tackle on Hammers forward, Adriana Leon.
This gave West Ham the impetus to get a consolation in what was a miserable day for the away side. Efforts from Alisha Lehmann and Wiktoria Kizkis worked Roebuck but the goalkeeper’s clean sheet remained intact.
West Ham’s manager Matt Beard was irate with his team’s performance, telling the club’s official site that it wasn’t good enough. “We’ve let ourselves down and we’ve let the club down. It’s super frustrating because we are better than what we have produced today,”
West Ham will look to bounce back when they return to Rush Green Stadium to face Lewes in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup on Wednesday.
