Hammered! City still looking for first points
THIRD SUCCESSIVE DEFEAT FOR FOXES IN WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE
LEICESTER City are still looking for their first points in the top flight of women’s football after a thumping by West Ham at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, writes Daniel Rees, of Sportsbeat.
West Ham claimed their first win of the season thanks to two goals from debutant Tameka Yallop, a goal from Claudia Walker, and an own goal from Ashleigh Plumptre.
But for Leicester, the heavy defeat leaves Jonathan Morgan’s Foxes with no wins and no points with three games of the Women’s Super League season played.
It was West Ham who started with energy and daring from the opening whistle as Yallop, Kate Longhurst and Dagny Brynjarsdottir each missed presentable chances.
The opening goal the home side deserved finally came on 25 minutes, with the impressive Australian Yallop latching onto a through-ball from Longhurst to slot home.
The Hammers soon doubled their advantage just shy of halftime as Claudia Walker stabbed home from a deft flick-on from captain Gilly Flaherty.
Leicester’s only chance of the half came from new signing Jess Sigsworth, who shot straight at Mackenzie Arnold.
Things got even worse for Leicester by half-time as Ashleigh Plumptre diverted into her own net from Adriana Leon’s outswinging cross.
The second half was a far quieter affair as Leicester made a host of substitutions in a bid to salvage a goal.
Molly Pike fired over early on after the restart, but the away side failed to create many notable chances, with MacKenzie Smith firing straight at Arnold from range and substitute Esmee de Graaf shooting wide on the turn.
West Ham’s Yallop then capped off a perfect debut as she headed in a fourth to complete an excellent home display.
Leicester City manager Jonathan Morgan explained why he made three changes at half-time with his side 3-0 down.
“Just to try and win the game. We saw some tactical things – we needed different players who could do things differently,” he said.
“We had a couple more chances in the second half and had we capitalised on them we could have made the game a little bit different.”
“I said to the girls that we know exactly what we want to focus on.
“But sometimes you have to give them that little bit of leeway and say ‘we could have done that better, we could have done this better.’
“To have such a collective not doing as well as we’d like, sometimes you have to think that it was one of those days when the ball didn’t roll for you.
“Had some of our opportunities gone in, things could have been different.
“We did have some good opportunities that were more than half chances and we need to make sure we take them next time.”
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