Spurs Women's testing start to the Barclay’s FA Women’s Super League season continued after a 4-1 defeat to Manchester City Women at the Academy Stadium on Sunday (4 October).
Anna Filbey marked her return to the starting line-up with a goal in the 80th minute, but the damage had already been done by then, with Chloe Kelly on target twice for City - her second goal coming from the penalty spot - with Sam Mewis and Ellen White also on the scoresheet for the hosts.
Karen Hills and Juan Amoros made three changes from the side that exited the 2019/20 Women’s FA Cup last weekend to Arsenal. Filbey returned to a central midfield berth, having operated at centre-half last season, with captain Josie Green and striker Rianna Dean also coming back into the side.
City controlled large portions of the first half as we struggled to create any clear-cut chances. Kelly looked dangerous for the hosts, cutting in from the left-hand side on numerous occasions. It was White who came close to scoring after a nice bit of skill took her past Kerys Harrop, but her powerful effort struck the crossbar, much to the delight of goalkeeper Becky Spencer.
However, Gareth Taylor’s side took the lead in the 33rd minute through Kelly, albeit in frustrating circumstances for us. Kit Graham went down after a coming together with the winger, but play continued with the forward still on the ground, with Kelly eventually receiving the ball again, cutting inside from the left and firing a shot into the top right corner to make it 1-0.
Mewis almost doubled City’s lead on the cusp of half-time. After picking up a second ball from a throw-in deep in Spurs territory, she drove into the box and her low effort flew past Spencer’s right hand and bounced off the post.
Hills and Amoros tried to improve our attacking firepower at half-time, as Angela Addison was introduced for Graham, but it didn’t stop City from going 2-0 up six minutes after the restart. Again it was a hammer blow for us as Gemma Bonner got underneath a looping cross from the edge of the penalty area and came together with Ria Percival. She went down and the referee awarded City a penalty, which was dispatched by Kelly for her second of the afternoon.
City made it 3-0 only a couple of minutes later. Kelly was involved once more with Shelina Zadorsky blocking her effort, but the ball fell to Mewis, who combined with Janine Beckie before firing the ball into the net. Beckie's wide free-kick flew over Spencer and crashed off the woodwork with Zadorsky forced to clear off the line on the follow-up, shortly before White got on the scoresheet in the 68th minute from a corner. Steph Houghton climbed highest from a Beckie delivery, and White flicked her effort home to make it 4-0.
We clawed a goal back after Addison’s long-range effort was saved by Ellie Roebuck, and the resulting corner was headed in by Filbey, after a great delivery was sent into the box by Siri Worm. As the game progressed, we battled hard, keeping more possession in the City half with Percival getting on the end of Alanna Kennedy's header. However she couldn’t guide her effort on target, and the game finished 4-1 to City.
Next up for Hills and Amoros’ side is a visit from London City Lionesses in the Continental League Cup on Wednesday (7 October) at the Hive, where we will look for our first victory of the season.
Head Coach Juan Amoros said afterwards: “I think we were in the game, limiting their chances and sticking to our game plan but I think there’s a key moment there in the first half where Kit goes down and they score, we go in at half-time, it was obviously a mountain to climb because you are 1-0 down but it was in the plan that we could be in that scenario and the girls came out well, but then suddenly there was another hit against us which was the penalty. At the end of the day, it’s football and when you go 2-0 down it’s a difficult place to play, then we conceded a couple more and that’s never good but I think the resilience was still there, the girls kept going, got that goal back and in the last few minutes of the game I think we did well. For us, the work ethic is the base – we need to make sure we work hard and we work for each other from start to finish, whatever the result is, and I’m pretty confident to say that the girls did that today.”
On goalscorer Filbey, he added: “Anna is a quality player. She came in and played in a different position in the midfield and she’s done very well. She’s a young, talented player and I’m very pleased for her to get the goal.”
