Manchester City brush off Nick Cushing's imminent departure to ease past Everton

Manchester City 3 Everton 1

This was Manchester City’s taste of - for the past two days and the next 22 - their new normal: playing beneath the shadow of not only the hulking Asda Superstore half a mile away but also manager Nick Cushing’s imminent departure to New York City.

In the interim, as the sand in Cushing’s Manchester hourglass dwindles, and his foray to the MLS looms ever-closer, City will endeavour to go about their onfield business as though nothing has happened.

That is no easy task, given it is understood the club’s staff only learned of Cushing’s intentions a day before the announcement became public. Without doubt, this is the biggest upheaval of their short history. Cushing has held the reins here since the reformation of City’s women’s team in 2013, during which time they have won the league once, the FA Cup twice and the League Cup three times.

He told TV crews before his side’s Saturday evening game against fifth-placed Everton that there would “never be a good time to leave”: City are in a three-way fight for the league title with eight WSL games remaining and are still in both domestic cup competitions.

Still, it was business as usual for City. This was their ninth successive Women’s Super League home victory, a new club record, and this time it was Everton on the end of Pauline Bremer’s prolific finishing, her eighth and ninth goals of the season extending a run in which she has scored nine times in her last seven league games. City were out of sight by 65 minutes, Gemma Bonner skidding in at the back post from Caroline Weir’s free-kick for their third. Not even Arsenal looked this in control over Everton.

Everton could - and probably would, were goalline technology available in the women’s game - have had the opener after just 15 seconds, Hannah Cain’s shot palmed to the underside of the crossbar by City goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck. Beyond that, Everton struggled to match their opponent’s speed of thought and movement. But their next attack came 25 minutes later - a short, incisive interchange deep into the City half that culminated in Roebuck collecting captain Lucy Graham’s cross-cum shot - such was the dominance of a City side who reached the break a goal to the good having enjoyed 63 per cent of the possession.

It was little surprise when Bremer, stumbling slightly, connected with Weir’s cross to poke home at the far post on 18 minutes, after a period when the performance of City’s younger players - the likes of Roebuck, Lauren Hemp, Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh - evinced the extent of Cushing’s impact on the club. Walsh’s trademark vision picked out Stanway to slide low past the far post before Hemp, a constant menace for Everton’s Taylor Hinds and Maeva Clemaron, slotted a well-timed delivery into Stanway’s vicinity only for the Barrow-born forward to miscue her lines.

The only criticism you could level at City was over their uncharacteristic languor in the Everton box: it was easy to wonder, as the first half wore on, whether they would come to regret passing up so many chances. Weir blasted over from an open goal before Stanway nuzzled past Gabrielle George but nudged tamely in the direction of Everton goalkeeper Tinja Korpela. When Bremer made it two, opening up after being granted all the time in the world by the Everton backline, it was little more than City’s dominance had deserved.

Everton salvaged a consolation goal in the final minute of normal time when Stanway diverted a corner into her own goal, but City - who had a Janine Beckie effort cleared off the line - were otherwise in control.

Match details

Manchester City: Roebuck; Beckie, Houghton, Bonner, Stokes; Scott (Wullaert 68), Walsh, Weir; Hemp, Bremer (White 68), Stanway. Subs not used: Coombs, Tolland, Lee, White, Benameur (g), Fidalgo

Everton: Korpela; Hinds, van Es, George, Turner; Stringer, Graham; Boye-Hlorkah, Clemaron (Pike 65), Kaagman; Cain (Magill 75). Subs not used: MacIver (g), Finigan, Coan

Referee: Amy Fearns

Attendance: 1,681