Khadija Shaw's first-half hat-trick set Manchester City on the way to a comprehensive victory at the Joie Stadium on Sunday evening, as Gareth Taylor's side inflicted our heaviest-ever Women's Super League defeat.
Shaw showed her predatory instincts with three goals inside a 15-minute spell to give the hosts a comfortable advantage at the interval, and things only got worse for us after the break as Lauren Hemp, Jill Roord and substitute Laura Coombs added three more to leave us 6-0 down with a little less than an hour gone.
We had a handful chances at the other end, Martha Thomas denied a couple of times by Khiara Keating, but Coombs had the final say with another goal in stoppage time to give City a 7-0 win. The defeat was our first since the opening day of the season as our eight-game unbeaten run came to a shuddering halt - it was the first time we'd conceded seven goals in a WSL game, having previously let in six in a 6-1 defeat to Arsenal in October, 2020.
There were wholesale changes from the midweek Conti Cup win over Bristol City, but only two from our last league outing at Leicester City last Sunday as Asmita Ale and Linyan Zhang came in for their first WSL starts of the season - and a first WSL appearance outright for Zhang.
City showed their aerial prowess in the opening stages as Filippa Angeldahl nodded wide before Shaw got the run on a good cross from Leila Ouahabi to get between centre-backs Luana Buhler and Molly Bartrip and power her side ahead in the 23rd minute, before again converting from between the two defenders 10 minutes later with a diving header at the front post, this time from Roord's delivery.
Celin Bizet's angled shot was saved in between those strikes while Zhang threatened around the edge of the box a couple of times, but when Shaw pulled down a cross from the right and drilled home to complete her treble in the 38th minute - having also scored a hat-trick in this fixture last season - we were left with a mountain to climb.
Grace Clinton fired over at the start of the second half but any hopes we had of making inroads into the scoreline were dented when Hemp pinged into the top corner from just inside the box in the 48th minute, Thomas subsequently denied one-on-one by Keating in our best chance of the game before Hemp's goal-bound cross was helped over the line by Roord in the 53rd minute to make it 5-0. Coombs converted Hemp's cut-back with a lovely first-time finish six minutes later to compound our misery.
Experienced defender Shelina Zadorsky helped to shore things up after coming on for her first league appearance of the season and to our credit, we didn't allow our heads to drop, Thomas' header from Rosella Ayane's cross well saved and Angharad James seeing her fierce shot blocked in the box, but City looked dangerous every time they got forward and after they won a free-kick 30 yards out, Alex Greenwood's arrowing shot crashed off the crossbar. We had more control of the possession in the last 20 minutes but six minutes into added time, City added another as Coombs doubled her tally from Jess Park's cross. There was still time for Hemp to try one more shot, but Becky Spencer was equal to it as a miserable evening in the north-west came to an end.
