West Ham United were denied a much-needed win but climbed off the foot of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
Wednesday 17 March
FA WSL
Everton 0-3 Chelsea
Aston Villa 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Bristol City 0-3 Manchester City
West Ham United 2-2 Birmingham City
Mace equalizes at the death
West Ham are goal-difference off the bottom of the table after a 2-2 tie at home to Birmingham City, who moved within a point of Spurs in eighth thanks to a stoppage-time leveller by Ruby Mace.
Emily Murphy gave Birmingham an early lead in the relegation ‘six-pointer’ but the Hammers turned the match in their favour after the interval.
Emily van Egmond equalised seconds after the restart when Hannah Hampton failed to deal with a long ball into the box, Katerina Svitková then struck the ball across the keeper and just inside the post to give them a 73rd-minute lead.
But in the fourth minute of added time, Sarah Mayling delivered for Mace to net a dramatic leveller at the far post.
Seagulls go sixth
Brighton went sixth with a 2-0 victory at Aston Villa, leaving their hosts one point ahead of the bottom two.
Chloe Arthur was denied a goal for Villa when Megan Walsh made a crucial stop, Aileen Whelan then opening the scoring midway through the first half after pouncing on Lisa Weiss’s spilling of Megan Connolly’s shot.
Villa battled hard to get back on terms but when Weiss brought down Kayleigh Green in the box, Inessa Kaagman sealed the points from the spot.
Leaders overcome first-minute penalty miss
Chelsea had a very early penalty saved but went on to win 3-0 at Everton to remain top by two points with five games left.
Less than a minute into the match, the hosts conceded a spot-kick for handball but Tinja-Riikka Korpela saved Melanie Leupolz’s effort.
Sam Kerr, with a perfect pass on the turn, sent Fran Kirby through to find the net with less than a quarter of an hour played, Kirby later turning provider for Pernille Harder’s goal after an hour.
Claire Emslie saw her effort from outside of the area well tipped over by Ann-Katrin Berger, before Leupolz overcame her penalty miss to make it 3-0 with a shot through the keeper’s legs, after a lay-off from Kirby.
Bristol sent back to the bottom by Man City
Manchester City sent Bristol City back down to twelfth spot with a 3-0 scoreline, which kept themselves on the heals of the leaders.
Chloe Kelly’s cross set up Caroline Weir for a 12th-minute opener and Lauren Hemp was the provider as Ellen White doubled the lead on the half-hour, stabbing into the corner of the net
However, there was no further addition to the score for almost an hour, until Sam Mewis made it 3-0 with a header over the unfortunate Sophie Baggaley, who had just blocked a shot from Janine Beckie.
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