Goals from Jill Scott, Alisha Lehmann, Claire Emslie and Simone Magill were enough for the Toffees to recover from a rough patch of form and keep pace with the ‘big four’ near the top of the WSL against an offensively staggered Birmingham side.
Both sides came into this game at St. George’s Park looking to improve their current form as after decent spells earlier in the season, both teams have looked out of sorts. Birmingham have been without a win in their last six WSL games while Everton have taken only five points from their last five games.
After a scrappy start to the game, the visitors were dealt a significant blow as Toffees goalkeeper Sandy MacIver stormed out of her goal to close down the run of Claudia Walker. The two would heavily collide and after a ten-minute delay, MacIver was forced off with what looked to be a concussion and replaced with Everton’s back up ‘keeper in Tinja-Riikka Korpela.
Birmingham would spend the majority of the half frustrating Everton with their relentless press as the Merseyside outfit struggled to find a pass to break through but with 35 minutes played, Hayley Raso made an inspired overlapping run from the right back position and slid the ball across the eighteen-yard box to Jill Scott. Scott would find the bottom left corner of the net first time to give the visitors the breakthrough.
Everton were able to double their lead just ten minutes later as West Ham loanee Alisha Lehmann struck a powerful header past Hannah Hampton in the Birmingham goal to give the Blues plenty of work to do to salvage a result as Birmingham came into this game as the WSL’s lowest scorers, only managing 10 goals through 14 games.
Any optimism for a spirited fightback from the hosts was dashed quickly in the second half as Lehmann forced Hampton out of her goal and left the Birmingham defence scattered. Lehmann would lay the ball off to Claire Emslie who chipped the ball over the top and as the ball bounced into the net, the Toffees found themselves three-nil up.
With the game surely decided, Birmingham were left trying to avoid a third consecutive four-nil defeat after being beaten by the same score line by Manchester City and then Arsenal in their last two games.
Everton would put the stamp on their victory with three minutes left to play as the ball bounced towards substitute Simone Magill who turned and fired a wonderful volley from distance, giving Hampton no chance and inflicting the all-too-familiar defeat on the Blues for the third game running.
The victory puts Everton firmly in fifth place as they are now six points clear of Reading in sixth with both sides having played the same number of games, while Birmingham miss an opportunity to establish some daylight between themselves and bitter rivals Aston Villa towards the bottom of the table.
Blues fans will have to hope that their team is not dragged into a relegation dogfight at this point as their form has been worrying, Birmingham have scored only one goal in their last eight games in all competitions.
Both sides have another midweek assignment as their next WSL fixtures as they face teams on the complete opposite side of the table. On the 17th, Birmingham travel to the league’s bottom side West Ham, while Everton host the WSL leaders Chelsea.
The Inbound Observer 