Ok. First half, I noticed that we were being kind of dominated physically. At least two or three times I saw one of ours simply being brushed off the ball like a feather, even when they had it under control at their feet. And I find myself thinking, “Oh for Bunny at this point”. Chelsea have got two or three players who are units. Not least our own once-of-this-parish Lucy Bronze.
And then… no. In the second half, it was as if something clicked, the girls said, “No fuck that, we're not having this”. (I wonder what the half-time talk was from Cushing). They were much sharper, much more on the front foot, much more aggressive into the 50-50s. We dominated Chelsea not merely technically — which we'd often been doing in the first half, to be fair — but even athletically.
If I lived in Manchester or the area I'd definitely go to the women's matches, at least sometimes. The women's game, while technically not as exciting as the men's, at least to my eyes, is still refreshingly free of all the things that are now such a blight on the men's game. Not least the more or less constant, organised and determined attempt to con the ref.
Although there are signs that those things are coming, even to the women's game.
