An eighth minute Khadija Bunny Shaw goal broke the hearts of Blues Women has Manchester City progress to the Semi Finals of the Adobe FA Cup and now face Chelsea away from home. But for Blues yes, the cup run is over but are performance on Monday evening was full of pride and passion yes, we didn’t trouble Khiara Keating has much has we wanted to but losing to the WSL leaders by a single goal and how we played was simple brilliant. Amy made Neve Herron has captain and went to a back three with Hannah Silcock & Shannon Cooke alongside Neve.
FIRST HALF
The first chance of the game was the opening goal for Manchester City when Iman Beney picked out Bunny Shaw who placed it pass Lucy Thomas to make it 0-1 to City in the eighth minute.
The next chance of the game came when City put a ball into the box of the Blues defence Oceane Hurtre couldn’t clear her lines if fell to Lauren Hemp whose effort went wide in the 15th minute.
Blues first chance of the game came in the 17th minute from a free kick, but Oceane Hurtre’s effort went over the bar.
Blues were coming into the game in the 21st minute Lily Crosthwaite won the ball of Leila Ouahabi and then played it to Asato Miyagawa who returned the pass to Crosthwaite she run towards the box and put in a low cross which was tipped away from Khiara Keating.
In the 22nd minute a Shannon Cooke header went over the bar.
In the 31st minute some good hold up play from Bunny Shaw played it into the box to Laura Coombs who laid it off to Aoba Fujino whose shot was easily saved from Lucy Thomas.
But the blue moon almost double their lead in the 38th minute when Bunny Shaw shot from outside the box was deflected of Neve Herron onto the post.
The last chance of the half came in stoppage when a header from Bunny Shaw went high and wide.
HALF TIME BLUES WOMEN 0-1 MANCHESTER CITY WOMEN
SECOND HALF
The second half was very stop start the first real opportunity came for Blues from a free kick from Shannon Cooke but went wide of the post in the 63rd minute.
In the 80th minute Manchester City was so closed to doubling the lead when the ball fell to Yui Hasegawa outside the box whose fired her shot straight at Thomas which then came of the crossbar. Lucy then went direct and found Lily Crosthwaite but was fouled by Khiara Keating.
Then in the 89th minute Yui Hasegawa was at it again when substitute Kerolin chipped it into Hasegawa and her side foot volley was brilliantly saved from Lucy Thomas. From the corner Greenwood delivered it onto the head of Rebecca Knaak who rattled the crossbar the ball came to Greenwood whose shot was easily saved from Thomas.
The last chance of the game came for City in the 95th minute following a corner which Alex Greenwood’s shot went over the bar.
FULL TIME BLUES WOMEN 0-1 MANCHESTER CITY WOMEN
MY THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
A performance to be proud of if you are a Blues fan the team showed that there can compete against the best from the WSL every player put it all on the line and put pride into the Blues shirt. It was great to see the reaction after the goal heads didn’t drop and at times we playing are stuff yes, we should have tested their goal more put you have to understand who we are up against this is a team that left out Vivianne Miedema. I think in time we can hurt teams from the WSL it’s just about bringing in the right recruitment to strengthen and more importantly help the team. Overall, a proud performance for the club and you can see that after the game when the fans clapped them of the pitch and people sticking around for a selfie and autographs. Like I said momentum is key in us getting into the WSL and hopefully winning the league we got two more games to go after the international break starting with Ipswich who are fighting for their lives and then the final game against someone who we haven’t beat since are time in the WSL2 in Charlton but like Amy famously says one game at a time and next up is Ipswich.
MY PLAYER OF THE MATCH
I have to go for Yui Hasegawa her movement was sensationally and always gave are back line trouble at times and on another day could have gotten a goal if it wasn’t for the saves from Lucy Thomas.
UP NEXT
It’s international break now but next up is our final home game of the season against Ipswich Town and it will be a 14:00pm kick off.
STEPHEN GILL KRO
All pictures credit – Laura Burton
i watched the game and thought we were excellent. Ok Man City had more possession but when you consider where they are in the table then it is to be expected. When Man City went 1-0 up early up i did think we were looking at a big score but we stood to the task and played very well. I think the opponents will have been suprised at just how good we were.
As far as promotion is concerned then we are practically there and having watched our performance the other night then it gives you hope that we can more than hold our own.