Chelsea Ladies 1-0 Everton Ladies
- Published
Women's Super League One title hopefuls Chelsea left it late to beat a hard-working Everton side and avoid losing ground on rivals Manchester City.
Lively Everton striker Courtney Sweetman-Kirk hit the post with a first-half penalty as the visitors caused Chelsea plenty of problems.
The hosts did not get their usual flowing play going in the first hour, but built up pressure late in the game.
With six minutes left, Jonna Andersson fired into the roof of the net.
The Sweden defender's clinical strike was her first goal for Chelsea and was much-needed for Emma Hayes' side as they found themselves against a well-organised Everton outfit.
The Toffees should have led at the break, after Sweetman-Kirk missed her spot kick having gone down in the area under the challenge of Anita Asante, who was making her first Chelsea appearance since returning from Swedish side Rosengard.
Sweetman-Kirk had also seen an earlier effort disallowed for a very close offside decision, after Chloe Kelly's free-kick had been saved by keeper Hedvig Lindahl.
But Chelsea improved in the latter stages after the introductions of attacking trio Ji So-Yun, Fran Kirby and Maren Mjelde.
The result meant Emma Hayes' side topped the table temporarily before Manchester City restored their two-point lead at the summit with a 3-0 win at Sunderland later on Sunday.
Chelsea match-winner Jonna Andersson:
"It was a bad game, but the most important thing was three points of course.
"I screamed to Fran [Kirby] that I was behind her if she didn't have the chance, so she passed to me, and I just knew I needed it to be on target - and it went in, so it was amazing,
"They surprised us a bit, but it was more how we played. I think we were not as good as we can be."
Everton goalkeeper Lizzie Durack:
"It's a little bit heart-breaking. To be honest, we dominated the first half, so to concede a goal at the end there is disappointing after keeping them out for so long.
"We would never turn to Courtney [Sweetman-Kirk] and say, 'you should have scored'. Credit to her, she stepped up and she was brave to take the penalty.
"We dominated that first half so we were buzzing going in at half time, and the confidence was high, and we took that until about the 70th minute when we got under the pump a bit."