Lionesses inflict heavy defeat at Brisbane Road

We’d gone into the game in form and flying high in the table, as had the visitors – it was second v fourth at kick-off – but it was the Lionesses who proved the better side on the day, a brace from Alexia Putellas and a close-range finish from Kadi Diani seeing them sail into a three-goal lead with a little over half-an-hour gone.

We proved more of a match for them after the break but found ourselves out of luck at the back, Danielle van de Donk’s deflected effort squirming in before Diani charged down a clearance from Lize Kop to walk in a fifth with just over a quarter-of-an-hour remaining. Substitute Delphine Cascarino compounded our misery in stoppage time.

Victoria Pelova’s fifth goal in three league games established her as our top scorer this term as well as the WSL’s joint-top scorer, but her strike just after the visitors’ fourth proved merely a consolation as we suffered a chastening defeat going into the international break.

The Lionesses punished our sluggish start and got straight on top, Putellas converting clinically from the left angle inside three minutes after Grace Geyoro’s long-range strike was parried by Kop. We saw a flurry of shots charged down in the box at the other end as part of a brief spell of pressure, but the visitors bagged a second on 22 minutes when Lucia Corrales got to the byline on the left and cut back for Diani to prod home. And it got even worse for us on 34 minutes when, after a corner wasn’t fully cleared, van de Donk got away from Amanda Nilden and teed up Putellas to lash home her second for 3-0. Van de Donk rounded Kop moments later but fired into the side-netting, although we did manage to threaten just before the break, Julie Blakstad’s excellent free-kick tipped onto the crossbar by Elene Lete and Nilden’s goal-bound drive blocked in the wake of a corner.

London City extended their lead seven minutes after the restart, though, as Diani drove the ball low into the mix from the right with van de Donk getting the better of Toko Koga to squirm a shot beneath Kop, but the large crowd was given something to cheer almost straight afterwards as Blakstad got down the left and her delivery eventually found its way to Pelova, who picked out the bottom corner with a precise finish to make it 4-1.

Olivia Holdt drilled just wide later on, but London City were always a threat, Geyoro firing over the bar and substitute Nicole Anyomi sending an acrobatic effort off-target before being denied one-on-one by the advancing Kop within seconds of her introduction. The keeper was unlucky with the visitors’ fifth on 74 minutes, though, as she advanced well clear of her goal to dispose of Putellas’ neat through ball, only for her attempted clearance to canon back off Diani, allowing the forward to simply stroll through and roll into the empty net. Cascarino subsequently added the icing on the cake for the visitors in the fourth minute of stoppage time, blasting in from the right angle with Kop getting a touch but unable to keep it out.

Line-ups

Spurs (4-2-3-1): Kop, Dijkstra (Morris 46), Koga, A Nilden, Blakstad, Gaupset, Spence (c), Holdt, Pelova (Martinez 68), Hanson (Vinberg 46), Tandberg. Substitutes (not used): Panengstuen, Sombath, M Nilden, Gunning-Williams, Wijk, Summanen.

London City Lionesses (4-2-3-1): Lete, Fernandez, Kardinaal, Mapi Leon, Corrales (Thomsen 85), Geyoro (Maria Perez 90+2), Arques, Diani (Cascarino 85), Putellas (c) (Goodwin 90+2), van de Donk, Godfrey (Anyomi 70). Substitutes (not used): Earps, Linari, Parris, Kafaji.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Pelova 53; London City Lionesses – Putellas 3, 34, Diani 22, 74, van de Donk 52, Cascarino 90+4.

Yellow cards: Spurs – A Nilden 69.

Referee: Megan Wilson.

Venue: Brisbane Road, Leyton.

Weather: Sunny, light winds, 21 degrees.

Attendance: 2,377.