Women's Super League: Manchester City Women 3-1 Birmingham City Ladies
- Published
Manchester City Women scored two stoppage-time goals as they came from behind to beat Birmingham City Ladies and preserve their 100% league record.
Mistakes by keeper Ellie Roebuck and England captain Steph Houghton allowed Lucy Quinn to curl the visitors ahead.
Izzy Christiansen levelled from the spot before Birmingham had Kerys Harrop sent off for an off-the-ball incident.
In seven minutes of added time, Jen Beattie headed in a long throw and a second Christiansen penalty sealed it.
The result meant Nick Cushing's Manchester City side have won all four of their Women's Super League One games this term, but their opponents were unfortunate to leave with nothing.
Paige Williams felled Nikita Parris for the first penalty before Birmingham skipper Harrop was shown a straight red for kicking out at Georgia Stanway after a challenge between the pair.
An injury to visiting keeper Ann-Katrin Berger led to the extended added time, and after sub Megan Campbell's throw helped the hosts go ahead, German Berger brought down Stanway and Christiansen found the top corner once more from the spot - against her former club.
Man City defender Jen Beattie: "I'm so proud of the girls for going right down to the wire. We didn't give up and we kept plugging away. The header didn't have much power on it but I was just so happy to see it hit the back of the net.
"We know we weren't on par today. We're not happy at all with the way we've played. But we won the league last year, on days when we aren't on our best we grind out results. This team is made of winners and that's what he showed today.
"The quality off the bench is amazing. All wins are happy, they're all just as good as each other. But the feeling when the whistle goes and you've gone from one-nil down to get three the points is amazing."
Birmingham defender Aoife Mannion: "We held onto the lead for 60-odd minutes so to lose 3-1 in the end is really disappointing. We feel that our performance was very good for such a large part of the game.
"There was a few big, crucial moments in the game. Obviously they converted two penalties and we had a player sent off. We were still really confident that we could get something from the game but in the end it didn't go our way.
"It was a lovely bit of individual ability from our new girls, Lucy Quinn. I know she'll be really happy with that. It's a shame that the goal will be marred by the result in the end."
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