Man City Women 3-0 West Ham Women: Blues clinch 2nd FA Cup triumph in 3 years

There were times when the Women’s FA Cup Final lived up it to its huge attendance and West Ham, a side assembled in a few short weeks last summer, took the game to Manchester City, a team of all the talents. But just as it seemed set up to be a classic, the technical gulf proved decisive.

You hoped, after a first viewing, that some kind of deflection might have explained why West Ham goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse failed to grasp a speculative 35-yard shot of no real power which Keira Walsh sent in, early in the second half. It was just a marginal swerve.

The goal punctured the energy and belief of a side who, by the end of it all, would have been glad to avoid a more humiliating scoreline. When Laura Hemp raced beyond the defence to put a third beyond the advancing Moorhouse, they were on their knees. Their legs had gone.

West Ham’s colourful 19-year-old director Jack Sullivan, seated next to his father David, had declared beforehand that ‘win or lose, we’re on the booze,’ though there has to be some regret for his team’s players after a counter-attacking first half performance which gave huge favourites City a huge run for the money in front of 43,264: not quite a record for this fixture.

The odds West Ham carried into the game - 11/1 – reflected the threat of Nikita Parris in those early stages, demonstrating the reasons why she is prolific and potentially hugely significant for Phil Neville’s England in the World Cup ahead. Parris is fast, intuitive, visibly desperate to be on the ball.

But a challenge of world class quality from West Ham’s Gilly Flaherty, sliding in to dispossess her when Georgina Stanway had sent her in, kept the underdogs in the game. They were fortified.

For a time, City looked surprisingly vulnerable for a team undefeated in domestic football all season.

Jane Ross, signed from City last summer, was a contributor to the game’s first outstanding chance.

The Scot exchanged passes on the right with Erin Simon and racing away into the six-yard box to meet the American’s deep cross with a header which Karen Bardsley’s leapt to palm away. A better connection from Ross, who headed into the turf, and City would have been ahead.

But City emerged reinvigorated for the second period. There was an immediate free hit for Caroline Weir, left entirely unattended in the area but who thumped the ball high.

And then, an error which was little less than criminal. Walsh was unchallenged as she took a ball from Jill Scott across the West Ham midfield and struck the shot which bounced in front of Moorhouse, who fumbled it into the net

West Ham’s match was not entirely over. City’s passing game always invited snatched possession and the counter attack. Substitute Leanne Kiernan raced down the left and levelled across the box for Alisha Lehmann, already too tired to make a strong connection.

So City eased away, demonstrating with every minute their superior fitness and technical ability.

Parris had sent two shots wide and failed to connect fully with a third when Georgina Stanway scored City’s second nine minutes from time - breezing past Flaherty and Brooke Hendrix to find the net with a low shot.

The third came seven minutes later. Hemp sprinted through onto a long ball, Moorhouse was rash to sprint out of her goal and the 18-year-delivered a cool finish beyond her. Hemp hit the post before the end, confirming her side’s supremacy.