Nick Cushing has not been afforded much luck since taking over as interim manager of Manchester City.
If a mounting injury crisis was not enough to contend with during this run of four back-to-back games against Chelsea, his team had a potentially season-defining goal disallowed in their defeat at the Etihad.
City were leading Chelsea 1-0 when Jess Park thought she had scored a second goal just before half-time. But Park’s strike was ruled out because referee Kirsty Dowle had blown for a foul seconds before the ball hit the net.
To her credit, Dowle is said to have admitted at full-time that she was wrong not to play advantage. But it will have been of little comfort to Cushing, whose side conceded two second-half goals to fall seven points behind third-placed Manchester United.
“The officials admitted that they got it wrong and that they should have played on,” Cushing said afterwards. “The frustrating thing for me, on the Laura Coombs foul about two or three minutes before, because we were so dangerous on the counter-attack and Kerolin was having so much joy, when the whistle was blown I asked the fourth official to ask the referee to play advantage and she said, ‘OK, I’ll pass that message on,’ and then three minutes later that happens.”
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor had sympathy for Cushing. “I can understand their frustration,” Bompastor said.
“If I was the City manager I would probably be in the same place. But I don’t think it changed our belief going into the second half. We created a lot, 24 shots on goal, their keeper made really great saves, we could maybe have scored more.”
City had inflicted a first defeat on Bompastor at Chelsea after winning the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final last week and they started this game the brighter of the two teams.
Kerolin was causing all sorts of problems and produced the opening goal of the game with a combination of speed and skill. After initially being held up by Millie Bright, Kerolin managed to squeeze the ball through the legs of the Chelsea defender and past an unsighted Hannah Hampton.
Park then had what would have been a sensational goal ruled out after more good work from Kerolin. The Brazilian had cut in from the right and was rugby-tackled by Bright on the edge of the box. Referee Dowle had already blown her whistle for a free-kick before Park smashed the loose ball into the top corner, much to the dismay of Cushing and his bench.
City were left ruing the official’s hastiness when Aggie Beever-Jones equalised four minutes after the restart, the striker sending an arrowed finish into the bottom left corner.
Chelsea would have taken the lead on four occasions had it not been for some fine goalkeeping from Khiara Keating. She made a fantastic save to keep out Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s close-range effort before making two impressive stops to deny Wieke Kaptein. Keating then got down brilliantly to keep out Lauren James’s long-range effort.
But there was nothing Keating could do to prevent Erin Cuthbert from scoring Chelsea’s stoppage-time winner. The visitors had been getting joy down the right wing all second half and Ashley Lawrence found space to send a cross into the box, which Cuthbert met with a diving head.
If the result was not bad enough for Cushing, City’s ever-growing injury list had got longer by the end of the day. Laura Blindkilde Brown and goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita were not part of the match-day squad. Blindkilde Brown, who was in a protective boot and on crutches, is expected to be out for the season after picking up an ankle ligament injury in training. Yamashita is at least a couple of weeks away from returning, meaning she will miss the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final. Cushing said Yui Hasegawa and Laia Aleixandri were withdrawn in the second half because of injuries.
“Laia and Yui had to come out with issues that they couldn’t continue with,” Cushing said. “Laura Coombs had to come off because she just hasn’t played football in a while. Fatigue had started to set in. To take those three off at the moment that we did put us under a bit more pressure because we were putting young players in. They’ll be with the medical team and we’ll see how serious it is.”
City have a two-goal lead going into Thursday’s European game but Chelsea may feel the momentum of this victory could help them overturn the deficit.
