The first ever Women's football weekend was taking place on the 16th and 17th of November this year and it saw a whole host of games been played. We made the short trip over to Manchester to watch Man City take on West Ham, honestly I thought it would be a very close contested game but I couldn't be any more wrong. Missing from City's starting line up was Walsh who is still serving her ban from a red card picked up vs Man Utd but the team worked well without her, it can be hard when you are so used to a cetain player starting week in week out but you wouldnt have thought that was the case during the game at all. The game also marked Stanway's 100th appearance for City.
The game started off well for City who had most of the possession from the get go. It took just 11 minutes for City to make it 1-0, a corner sent in found the head of Jill Scott who couldn't get her effort on target but the ball fell kindly to White who fired the ball into the back of the net.
The left hand side of the pitch looked noticeably weak for the visiting West Ham side and it showed with the amount of breaks City's Beckie was able to make alongside all the time she was given far too much space. City were also the better side in terms of closing down and winning the ball back there seemed to be constant pressure on each West Ham player when they had the ball and this definitely worked in City's favour as they were winning the ball back in the middle of the pitch and getting into some dangerous positions. Something that Man City did really well for the full 90 minutes was playing some great through balls and some absolutely brilliant balls out wide & over the top, players were making some great runs around the back of the West Ham defence and it really put them in some threatening positions.
Georgia Stanway scored to make it 2-0 to City in the 32nd minute on her 100th appearance and just 5 minutes later she managed to make that 3-0, yet another brilliant ball in from Beckie and Stanway was there to put the ball in the back of the net. By the 40th minute it was 4-0 to City a score line I don't think anyone was really expecting. This time it was an absolutely fantastic goal from Lauren Hemp. Scott looked like she was going to have a go at goal herself but instead passed it to Hemp who was in plenty of space and held her composure to put the ball passed the West Ham 'keeper. The first half ended 4-0 and it just looked like West Ham couldn't get going they didn't look to be a threat at all.
City made their first substitution at half time with Stokes coming off and being replaced by Megan Campbell and it looked like City were just carrying on the momentum of the first half with White rattling the crossbar not long after the restart. In the 53rd minute Stanway managed to find Wullaert in space who found the bottom corner to take City's lead to 5.
It wasn't until the 57th minute until West Ham really challenged Roebuck but she kept her clean sheet by pulling off a brilliant save. Roebuck has really stepped up with Bardsley out injured and I really think Bardsley may struggle to get that number 1 spot back with the performances Roebuck is currently having.
City's second sub saw Scott being replaced by Bremer, Scott had played pretty well but with City 5-0 up I think Nick was right to take her off as she has played a lot recently both for club and country, with a 5 goals lead she finally got a bit of a rest. Maybe though it should have been Stanway who was subbed out of the game as she had already received 1 yellow card and was dangerously close to a 2nd which eventually came in the 71st minute. I know she was on her way to her hattrick but you could see all the silly little fouls slowly building up so maybe Nick could have done something about this sooner but now they have lost her for the next game and had to carry out the rest of the game down to 10. Which should have really benefitted West Ham but they still couldn't capitalise on having an extra player and was unable to get a goal in the game. It wasn't through lack of trying though as they did seem to pick up a little when City went to down to 10 and even had a very close effort in extra time which unfortunately hit the post and came back into play. City did make their 3rd and final substitution just minutes after the red card which saw Hemp being replaced by Toland.
If I had to pick a player of the match it would certainly be between Hemp and Beckie both those players put in a real shift and created a lot of chances for the team. They created some great breaks and never seemed to give up the ball. Hemp provided the speed to keep the ball in play and put in some brilliant deliveries as did Beckie throughout the 90 minutes.
Man City starting 11 : Roebuck, Beckie, Houghton (C), Bonner, Stokes, Scott, Weir, Wullaert, Stanway, Hemp, White.
Man City Subs Used : Campbell, Bremer, Toland.
Man City Subs Unused: Benameur, Park, Geum-Min, Fidalgo.
West Ham starting 11 : Moorhouse, Redisch Kvamme, Flaherty (C), Vetterlein, Baunach, Middag, Longhurt, Dali, Lehmann, Leon, Kiernan.
West Ham Subs Used: Galabadaarachchi, Hendrix, Kiszkis
West Ham Subs Unused: Brosnan
