Drew Spence and Bethany England inspired us to come from behind to secure a 2-2 draw with Everton on Saturday afternoon in our final away game of Barclays Women's Super League campaign.
The hosts took control of the game after two goals inside the opening 15 minutes, with Sara Holmgaard and Justine Vanhaevermaet finding the back of the net, leaving us a steep hill to climb at Walton Hall Park but, as shown in recent weeks, we showed character to fight back to leave Merseyside with a point.
Ashleigh Neville’s clearance off the line in the closing stages of the first half would prove to be vital in the final result as, on the stroke of half time, Spence poked the ball past Courtney Brosnan and fired home into an empty net to cut the deficit before England grabbed the equaliser three minutes after the break, netting her fourth goal in four WSL games.
We had glorious opportunities to grab the three points in the last 10 minutes, but Brosnan was in inspired form to deny Martha Thomas, who came off the bench after returning from a slight knock, and Kit Graham, forcing us to settle for a point for a third consecutive league game.
Robert Vilahamn made three changes to his starting XI that faced Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend as Molly Bartrip, Spence and Neville came in for Amy James-Turner, who missed out due to a small issue, Olga Ahtinen and Charlotte Grant, while also welcoming the return of Celin Bizet, alongside Thomas, to the matchday squad.
It didn't get off to the perfect start as the hosts opened the scoring with just nine minutes on the clock after Holmgaard was found completely unmarked inside the box and she fired a left-footed strike past Becky Spencer. Everton then doubled their lead just five minutes later as a corner from the right caused a scramble inside our box and Vanhaevermaet eventually poked the ball home from close-range.
Brosnan produced a fantastic save to tip over England’s header as we looked for an instant response. Spence struck the woodwork just after the half hour mark, advancing into the box after Megan Finnigan lost possession but our number 24 could only direct her effort on to the post, while, at the other end, Neville made an outstanding last-ditch clearance off the line to keep it only at two-nil.
But, as the fourth official indicated two additional minutes at the end of the first half, we managed to cut the deficit as a superb ball over the top from Eveliina Summanen was raced onto by Spence, she poked the ball past Brosnan and smashed the ball home into an empty net.
And we picked up where we left off at the start of the second half as, three minutes after the break, Spence won possession off Clare Wheeler inside the box and played the ball across to England and she converted from point-blank range.
Having got ourselves level, we then took control of the game and carved out numerous opportunities, Amanda Nilden firing a low effort across the face of the goal from a tight angle and, in a similar position, Jess Naz drilled an effort past the far post after a lovely one-touch and go with Grace Clinton.
We were inches away from completing the comeback in the final 10 minutes of the game, but was denied by two outstanding saves from Brosnan. Grant advanced down the left after a delightful ball by Graham and fizzed a low cross into Thomas, but she couldn’t slot past the sliding Toffees goalkeeper and, seconds later, Graham’s powerful effort from around 20 yards out was tipped around the post by Brosnan at full stretch, meaning the points were shared and extended our unbeaten run to five games in the WSL.
