Kerr and Kirby star as Chelsea thrash Bristol City to win League Cup
The Chelsea banners stretched across the Vicarage Road end read “Pride of London”, but “welcome to the Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr show” would have been more accurate, as the pair spearheaded a brutal 6-0 dismantling of Bristol City in the League Cup final.
It took just 87 seconds for Chelsea to carve apart a team they have put 14 goals past in their two Women’s Super League meetings this season, with Kirby providing for Kerr twice in 10 minutes.
Kerr broke out her trademark cartwheel and backflip for the first time in a Chelsea shirt. The Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, said: “I’m shaking my head because I’ve waited 12 months for that. The second half of the flip was very sloppy. It would’ve been a 4.0 at the Olympics.”
However Kirby pointing her finger to the sky – a touching Mother’s Day tribute to her mum Denise who died suddenly when the player was 14 – after the fourth goal that was even more poignant.
Hayes said: “I wrote a card to every player this morning. I think it’s pertinent to say how difficult it could be for [Kirby, and Carly Telford, whose mother died in 2018] and how thoroughly professional they were even though it could be a difficult day and I understand that even more now I’m a mum.
“I’m really over the moon for Fran because I thought she was amazing today, she’s always amazing, but I thought the connection between her and Sam, just everything came off – it was a brilliant performance from her.”
A mini-resurgence under Bristol’s interim manager Matt Beard – in charge while Tanya Oxtoby is on maternity leave – could not even moderately shrink the huge gulf that exists between the two sides.
The modest banners representing the underdogs nestled in the Rookery Stand and the sweep of blue across the opposite end, plus the sight of European player of the year Pernille Harder and the midfielder Ji So-yun rested on the bench, was a very visual representation of the gap in resources available to the two managers.
There would be one more link up between the in-form Kerr and Kirby, with the Australian getting her hattrick, while England’s Kirby would then provide a tap-in for Guro Reiten, before both would make way, job done, just past the hour.
Hayes was being typically protective of Kirby in particular, having nurtured her through repeated struggles with depression and injury. “From my end I just persevered,” said Hayes of her relationship with the striker. “Even if I knew she wasn’t ready for certain conversations and I made sure when she was ready.
“I don’t think you can underestimate the impact of losing a mum at that age and as I have always said being in a household of boys I have always felt the one thing Fran needed from me, rightly or wrongly, was the maternal eye and that was the commitment I made to myself about what I was going to do for her.
“The rest of it is on her, she’s done all the work. I’ve merely stood beside her when she needed me to.”
The victory was marred as the screams of Maren Mjelde echoed around the fanless ground after an innocuous challenge from Bristol substitute Aimee Palmer left the right-back clutching her knee and writhing in agony.
However Kirby would hold her teammate’s shirt aloft as captain Madga Eriksson lifted the trophy and Chelsea move one step closer to a potential quadruple.