A ninety-third minute strike from centre half Ruby Mace broke the hearts of the Hammers, who led after goals from Emily van Egmond and Katerina Svitkova in a clash between two sides separated by three points at the bottom of the WSL.
West Ham United came into this game on the back of a five-game losing streak in all competitions, their last victory coming in a Continental Cup quarter final clash with Championship high-fliers Durham.
That run of form has left them at the bottom of the WSL and they welcomed Birmingham City to Victoria Road knowing that this midweek fixture would be a crucial one for their survival hopes against a side only three points above them in the league table.
The Hammers would have fancied their chances going into this game as the visitors also came into this game on a poor run of form, having played eight games without a win and with the knowledge that they were travelling to a team that has already beaten them in the reverse fixture in November.
Both sides showed signs of promise early on, but West Ham were unable to challenge Hannah Hampton in the Birmingham goal, with the English shot stopper coming off of a difficult game in the Blues’ previous outing at home to Everton where she was informed just over an hour before kick-off that she was not going to be invited to be part of the upcoming Great British Olympic team, an incident for which the FA subsequently apologised.
Birmingham would carve out the more threatening chances and would take the lead with nine minutes played as the first corner of the game for the West Midlands side was played across the ground towards top scorer Claudia Walker.
Walker would fire towards goal but could not direct the ball through the crowd of players in the box, the ball would bounce back out to Emily Murphy however and the 17-year-old on loan from Chelsea made no mistake and tucked in the rebound to open the scoring for the visitors.
Despite the fact that neither side was able to put together a dangerous chance for the remainder of the half, the tie was still hotly contested, with players from both sides ending up with yellow cards and the gritty nature of the game was made clear on the stroke of halftime after a hard clash of heads between West Ham captain Gilly Flaherty and Claudia Walker as the two leapt to attack a cross.
The two players would be left bloodied from the collision and would continue after a lengthy stoppage with heavy bandaging, with the two sides going into the break soon after with the score still one-nil to Birmingham.
Walker did not immediately come out for the second half with the striker likely receiving further treatment for the cut she sustained and West Ham would take full advantage of the Blues being momentarily down to ten.
The East London outfit would play the ball out to Flaherty on the right wing and the captain would then swing in a cross that Hampton would fail to punch out.
The ball would drop behind the Birmingham goalkeeper right into the path of Emily Van Egmond, the Aussie would be presented with one of the easier goals of her career as she simply had to poke the ball into the empty net to level the tie at one-one with just over a minute gone in the second half.
Walker would race out onto the pitch soon after, but the Hammers were galvanised by their equaliser and would press for another, with Hampton being forced to parry away a powerful effort at her near post by Martha Thomas.
Thomas would challenge Hampton further just after the hour mark as she would head a lofted ball down and race ahead of the Birmingham centre-halves to find herself one on one with the ‘keeper but Hampton was able to deny the Scottish striker.
With the Londoners clearly in the ascendancy and with Birmingham having a run of six winless games in the capital, it was no surprise to see West Ham complete the turnaround with just over a quarter of an hour to play.
Van Egmond would receive the ball on the edge of the area and then laid the ball off to her left to meet the surging run of Katerina Svitkova, the Czech winger would strike the ball powerfully with her left foot and send the ball across goal with it rattling the far post before finding the back of the net to give the league’s bottom side a deserved lead.
It was clear how valuable this lead was to the Hammers as the hosts would begin to start holding the ball up in an attempt to eat away at the clock and prevent Birmingham from finding an equaliser.
Their efforts were in vain, however as Birmingham would find an equaliser in the dying embers of the game from the unlikeliest of sources. As West Ham failed to clear their lines, the ball fell to Sarah Mayling on the wing. The wing back would whip in a cross that found centre half Ruby Mace at the back post, who side-footed her effort in at the ninety-third minute to steal away a point for the Blues, leaving the West Ham players devastated and ending the game at two goals apiece.
The result does lift West Ham off of the bottom of the WSL, albeit on goal difference, as they are now level on points with Bristol City after the Robins lost 3-0 to Manchester City. The Hammers will take comfort in knowing that they have a game in hand, but Bristol have looked in much better form recently.
West Ham’s next game won’t be an easy task as they face Manchester United in the first WSL game to be played at Old Trafford, while Birmingham will look to yet again avoid being dragged into a relegation dogfight when they host Bristol City.
The Inbound Observer 