The Jamaica international looked to have secured victory for Gareth Taylor’s side, but the Irons hit back in the final seconds
Manchester City’s hopes of securing Women’s Champions League football for next season suffered another blow on Wednesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw away at West Ham.
Women’s Super League top scorer Khadija Shaw started on the bench as City boss Gareth Taylor made six changes to his starting XI and, perhaps unsurprisingly, saw his team put in a disjointed performance in the first half. January signing Kerolin fired wide early on and Lily Murphy swung an ambitious shot in the arms of goalkeeper Kinga Szemik, but that was about as good as it got for the visitors.
Indeed, City had Ayaka Yamashita to thank for ensuring the scoreline was still goalless heading into the break. The Japan international had to be at full stretch to deny Seraina Piubel and was then alert to keep out Riko Ueki just seconds before the whistle blew for half-time.
City continued to toil after the break, and it was no surprise to see Taylor send on Shaw in a bid to break the deadlock. The substitute made an instant impact and almost scored with an acrobatic overhead kick as the visitors began to ramp up the threat.
Laura Wienroither then went even closer with an effort that hit the woodwork from a corner, before the pressure eventually told with just 10 minutes of normal time remaining, as Mary Fowler swung in a lovely ball for Shaw to knock past Szemik from close range, which looked like being enough to secure the win.
However, West Ham refused to give up hope and equalised in stoppage time as Ueki did well to feed Manuela Pavi down the left, who cut inside and fired past Yamashita to rescue a point.
GOAL rates City’s players from the Chigwell Construction Stadium…