There could not have been a much tougher test for Marta Tejedor’s goalless and pointless Birmingham than unbeaten Manchester City and Keira Walsh was the architect as the hosts made sure they piled the pressure on the Midlands side with a comfortable 3-0 win.
Nick Cushing described Walsh as “the most intelligent player I’ve ever worked with” after the holding midfielder provided the opener from distance and helped create their second. “It’s her ability to control the buildup,” Cushing said. “I’m smiling because we have a bit of banter about it, she controls our buildup in ways we don’t work on, she’s a very smart player. You can see that if she plays well our team has the ability to go on and win football games.
“She plays every week because without her there is a huge hole in our performance. That is a fact. She has dominated our performances from a buildup point of view. You look in the second half – the [second] goal came from her long passing, she’s got such a depth and range of passing, she’s so adept and intelligent.”
Manchester City have four WSL wins from four. Birmingham had just a narrow Continental Cup win against Everton to lift their spirits before the visit to the Academy Stadium. To some extent, their difficult start is to be expected: the club has had to deal with a summer exodus after Marc Skinner’s departure for Orlando Pride towards the end of last season.
It took 16 minutes before the home side had a real chance on goal, Janine Beckie firing a low strike narrowly wide from inside the box. But with the brutally efficient passing game of Cushing’s side seeing them dominate possession it was inevitable that they would find the breakthrough – though it arrived with more than a hint of fortune.
Beckie, sent through one on one, drew a smart save from the 18-year-old Hannah Hampton and from the resulting half-cleared corner Walsh struck a shot on the turn from 25-yards. It took a heavy deflection and the ball slipped low to the right of Hampton.
“The girls always tell me to have a few more shots,” Walsh said. “I don’t think I shoot enough. It took a bit of a deflection but I’ll still take it, I’m not normally known for goalscoring.”
When told of Cushing’s praise, she said, laughing: “I didn’t know he said that. The way we play you have to be a smart player, to find the pockets and spaces. A lot of the girls have a joke with me and say I’m Nick’s favourite but I think he likes footballers who keep the ball. We’ve got a lot of them.”
Having opened the scoring City quickly upped the intensity and three minutes after the break they had doubled their lead. Beckie raced down the right to whip a cross towards Tessa Wullaert, who scored her second goal of the season. She could have got a third moments later, skipping into the area from the left before firing a shot against the inside of the far post.
As Birmingham struggled to get out of their own half, the substitute Lee Geum-min punished them further, driving a low strike into the far corner from the right.
“We didn’t do that against Everton,” Cushing said. “This league is so competitive that if you allow teams in the match with 20 minutes to go they make a game of it because they see there is something there for them.”
“To score a goal early and to get two, then three, that’s the most pleasing part – although getting the clean sheet is very good.”