Narrow defeat for Spurs Women at Everton

Spurs Women suffered their first defeat of the new Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) campaign following a 1-0 loss to Everton at Walton Hall Park on Sunday (13 September).

Izzy Christiansen scored the only goal of the game with a header in the second half to seal three points for The Toffees in our first away fixture of the season.

Karen Hills and Juan Amoros made four changes to the side that drew 1-1 with West Ham last Sunday (6 September) as defender Shelina Zadorsky made her debut for the Club.

Alanna Kennedy and Rachel Williams, who came on for their debuts in the second half against The Hammers in our season opener, both started against Everton, while Lucia Leon was also introduced into the starting 11.

Becky Spencer made an excellent save to her bottom right after seven minutes to deny Hayley Raso who found herself through on goal for the hosts, before coming to our rescue again two minutes later when the Everton forward tried her luck from distance.

Josie Green came extremely close to drawing us level before the interval after Kit Graham’s corner was cleared by the hosts, before our captain’s long-range effort, heading towards the top right corner, forced Sandy Maclver into making a flying save.

Everton broke the deadlock six minutes after the break - substitute Nicoline Sørensen sent a cross into the box from the left and Christiansen accurately headed home at the far-post to make it 1-0 to the hosts.

With 18 minutes remaining, Kennedy saw her header from second half substitute Gemma Davison’s corner go just wide of the bottom left corner.

Rosella Ayane, who returned to the side following suspension, couldn’t divert her attempt past Maclver four minutes later and Christiansen’s goal early in the second half proved to be the winner in a match with very few clear-cut chances.

Elsewhere on Sunday afternoon, the draw for the semi-finals of the delayed 2019/20 Women’s FA Cup campaign was made, with the winners of our quarter-final tie at Arsenal (on Saturday 26 September) set to meet Leicester City or Manchester City away in the last four of the competition.

Coach's view

Head coach Juan Amoros said: “I think we definitely improved in the second half and probably deserved something from the game but we still need to do much better. I think we defended well and I saw some improvements from last week but when we get into the final third we need to be better, especially so we can get points against strong teams like Everton. It’s always disappointing to concede in any moment of a game but in this case, to go 1-0 down early in the second half was disappointing. We need to be clinical in front of goal like they were on that occasion.”

Reaction on Spurs TV

Match data

Goal: Everton – Christiansen 51.

Yellow cards: Everton – Finnigan 64, Magill 67, Moe Wold 82; Spurs – Green 59, Harrop 77.

Referee: Robert Massey-Ellis.

Venue: Walton Hall Park.

Weather: Sunny, 23 degrees.

Attendance: Behind closed doors.