Women’s football Struggling City finish well beaten by Everton
EVERTON beat bottom club Bristol City 4-0 yesterday to record their first win in six Women’s Super League games.
Izzy Christiansen fired the Toffees into an early lead and Simone Magill capitalised on a goalkeeping error to make it 2-0 at the break.
Christiansen scored her second with a rising angled drive before Megan Finnigan added a fourth from a corner.
Bristol City remain winless in the WSL this season, suffering defeat in Matt Beard’s first game in temporary charge.
The 43-year-old former Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham boss has stepped in while Tanya Oxtoby takes maternity leave.
Everton had started the campaign with four successive wins but a five-match winless run - which included back-to-back defeats by Manchester City and Arsenal - had dented their hopes of a top-three finish.
Christiansen gave Willie Kirk’s side the perfect start at Walton Hall Park when she converted Nicoline Sorensen’s low ball from the left from six yards out.
Visiting goalkeeper Benedicte Haland denied Christiansen a second soon after, but the Norwegian fumbled a cross from Hayley Raso to allow Magill a tap-in seven minutes before the break.
City had an appeal for a penalty waved away in the second minute of the second half, and Everton midfielder Maeva Clemaron had an effort cleared off the line before former Bristol City player Lucy Graham teed up Christiansen for her second of the game.
The Robins have reached the semi-finals of the Continental League Cup, where they will face Championship leaders Leicester City, but remain four points from safety following their ninth defeat in 11 WSL games this season.
The visitors, who have now lost their past four league games by an aggregate score of 18-1, were without goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley and midfielder Carla Humphrey, who are self-isolating following positive Covid-19 tests.