WSL roundup: Manchester City put four past Brighton to keep pace with Chelsea

Manchester City bounced back from successive cup defeats to secure a 4-1 win against Brighton at the ­Broadfield Stadium on Sunday and draw level with ­Chelsea at the top of the Women’s Super League. Gareth Taylor’s side completely dominated the match with Lauren Hemp, Yui Hasegawa and Laura Coombs all influential.

Chelsea had opened up a three‑point gap over City on Friday by beating Arsenal 3-1 but that is now closed with only goal difference ­separating the two sides. After City’s win, Taylor was keen to maintain his mantra of one game at a time. “Just the next game,” he told BBC Sport. “We try and keep it as simple as possible, that’s the way to be. We just try and control what we can control.

Related: Brighton 1-4 Manchester City: Women’s Super League – as it happened

“The frustrating thing today is if we don’t concede and we get one at the end then we go top of the league outright,” the Manchester City mana­ger said after his team moved past defeats in the FA Cup against Tottenham, and Continental Cup against Chelsea. “We were top of the league early on this season, then were six points behind. All of a sudden, within two games, to claw that back to where we are now has been a phenomenal effort from the team.”

Hemp broke the deadlock in the 27th minute after a sensational pass from Jess Park which unlocked the Brighton defence. Mary Fowler then doubled City’s advantage on the stroke of half-time after being handed plenty of space in the box.

With goals from Khadija Shaw and Coombs after the restart Manchester City ­continued to run rings around the hosts, although a late consolation goal from Lee Geum‑min made the scoreline a little more respectable.

Brighton’s interim manager, Mikey Harris, was keen to pick out the positives at full time, one of which was the debut of the 16-year-old Grace McEwen. “Really pleased we had another WSL debut today for Grace,” Harris said. “An experience she will never forget and what an opponent to come up against in Shaw. She will remember that for ever and it is a great experience in her journey.”

Manchester United clinched a 2-0 win against Bristol City at Leigh Sports Village, Lisa Naalsund scoring twice with United’s only two shots on target. United struck early but the ­visitors held Marc Skinner’s side to the one-goal advantage for most of the match. Jamie-Lee Napier’s ­second yellow card and dismissal in the 82nd minute, proved to be a turning point. Naalsund subsequently struck again in added time to seal the win.

Liverpool secured a 3-1 win against West Ham. Leanne Kiernan broke the deadlock in the 41st minute, with Missy Bo Kearns adding to the scoresheet after half‑time. Sophie Román Haug sealed the win with a clever strike from close range, before West Ham scored a late consolation through Riko Ueki.

The Sweden international Matilda Vinberg scored the only goal of the match as Tottenham beat Leicester 1-0, converting a Jessica Naz cross in the second minute of the game.