Fran Kirby: Chelsea Ladies striker 'can't believe sexist comments'

Fran Kirby scored 11 goals in five league appearances for Reading this year and has netted three times in 13 appearances for England

People aiming sexist comments at women's football need to "catch up with the times", England striker Fran Kirby said.

The 22-year-old posted a series of tweets on the issue after coming off the bench to score on her debut in Chelsea's 4-0 win over Birmingham City on Sunday.

"Why can't people respect that football is not only a man's sport?" she wrote.

"Still can't believe some of the sexist comments I still read."

It is unclear what prompted her outburst, which came after her side went top of the Women's Super League.

The first of Fran Kirby's four tweets hitting out at sexist views about women's football

The former Reading forward, for whom Chelsea paid a reported British women's record transfer fee, added that people posting derogatory remarks about the women's game needed to realise they were "boring and unoriginal".

The top two tiers of the women's game in England have enjoyed record crowds this season, with England's third-place finish at the Women's World Cup earlier this summer further boosting attendances.

"It's 2015, and women's football is on the way up," Kirby said.

Kirby concluded her four-tweet "rant" by conceding social media critics would remain behind their screens

Kirby's goal against Birmingham was her first in WSL 1 and kept up her remarkable scoring form in 2015, having netted 11 goals in five WSL 2 games for Reading before the World Cup and England's first goal at the tournament.

Chelsea defender Gilly Flaherty said the diminutive striker was continuing to show herself to be an "incredible" talent.

"She has a lot of potential," Flaherty told BBC Sport. "She has been playing in Super League Two and now is her chance to make her name in Super League One.

"She has done it internationally and it is now about doing it for us too."