Manchester City saw out the season with a 3-2 win over Everton in the Women’s Super League.
Khadija Shaw opened the scoring in the second half with a close-range effort, followed by Lauren Hemp’s shot that clipped the crossbar and bounced into the net on the hour mark. Shaw scored again 10 minutes later to put City three goals to the good. Goals from Lucy Hope and Leonie Maier moved Everton within a goal of claiming a point but it wasn't to be on this occasion.
City manager Gareth Taylor said: “When we were 3-0 up especially, we could’ve been out of sight, the amount of chances we created after, we could’ve gone five or six nil.
“Everton are really dangerous in the fact that they try to exploit the spaces we potentially may leave. I was really looking forward to this game this week because I knew Everton would come out to engage and also try to build from the back so we knew exactly what they were going to do and we knew exactly what we needed to do.
“There were some real positives out there today. I think you could see some things we did really well and some things we need to improve on.”
Hope and Maier pulled two back for the visitors late into the game. Hope nudged it in from the back post while Maier capitalised on a loose ball from a Khiara Keating save in stoppage time.
Finishing fourth means City can put all their focus into the league next season, with Champions League quaification missed out on.
Taylor added: "We’re waiting on player selection, whether they’ve made it or not made it for various nations, so we will be around for the next few days.
“The players sort of disperse, we'll go and eat together now, to be together for one final time before everybody goes off. The players who are selected for the World Cup will look at taking some downtime that starts from now and then start building up for the World Cup.
“They need that, they’ve had a long season and they need to rest up and get ready for an intense tournament because having the luxury to give them time off afterwards is really difficult.”
He continued to express that the majority of the team will remain the same for next year, besides forward Haley Raso. Taylor announced her departure to the entire Academy Stadium fanbase.
“I've been pleased with Hayley for the last two years, I think she is so close to being at another level, especially with the things she has. I believe she’s improved a lot while being here and had to compete with the likes of Chloe [Kelly] and Lauren [Hemp] and Julie [Blakstad] and that’s not easy because these are top players.
“She goes with our best wishes and we look forward to seeing what she does next,” he added.
