West Ham United were on the end of a 4-1 defeat by Manchester City in the Vitality Women's FA Cup semi final.
Ellen White scored with a typical poachers finish to undo some good work by the Hammers in the opening 20 minutes, before Chloe Kelly seized on an individual mistake from Gilly Flaherty to put them two in front.
But that wasn’t the end of the story in the first half, as Lisa Evans got her side back into the game just before the referee sounded for the break. She got onto the end of a lovely ball through from Adriana Leon and slotted beyond Ellie Roebuck.
In the second half, the Hammers had chances to bring the score level, but Lauren Hemp would slot home her 50th club career goal after some superb play.
She would add a fourth deep in stoppage time, wrapping up the win for City.
In front of their biggest crowd of the season, the Hammers performed valiantly against Gareth Taylor’s side, but they had too much for them in the end as it would finish 4-1.
Olli Harder was boosted by the return of Kateřina Svitková, who missed the previous outing between the two sides two weeks ago due to illness.
And it was the Czech Republic international that looked to find an opening for Evans in the first three minutes in the east London sunshine. A long diagonal ball almost found the Scotland forward, but Roebuck was alive to the situation and gathered the ball.
White had a chance to open the scoring three minutes later, but she couldn’t make good connection a cross from the right-hand side.
And the West Ham supporter had another opportunity moments later, when she was played in behind by Kiera Walsh, but she couldn’t keep the effort down.
The opening ten minutes in the sunshine were certainly transitional, with both sides having chances. Roebuck had to be alert again to get to another ball in that was aimed towards Evans.
It was an aggressive start for Harder’s side, as they looked to get the ball wide and play it into the box as early as they could.
Roebuck was certainly the busier of the two goalkeepers, and she denied Dagný Brynjarsdóttir from grabbing the opening goal that the home side perhaps deserved. A great flick on from Leon eventually fell to the Icelandic midfielder, but the England No.1 was alive to the situation and made a smart save.
The game continued at somewhat of a frantic pace – with Caroline Weir letting fly from the edge of the area with her weaker right foot, with the effort blocked well by a sea of Claret & Blue.
But it would be the away side would open the scoring on 21 minutes. A superb strike from Walsh crashed against the crossbar, and White was the quickest to react, heading into the back of the net to undo all of West Ham’s good work in the opening stages.
And White had the ball in the back of the net five minutes later, but the ball was adjudged to have gone out of play before Lucy Bronze whipped in a delicious cross.
The Manchester City No.18 was at the heart of absolutely everything for the away side and had to be denied by a superb goal-saving challenge from Flaherty to deny the forward her second of the game.
The game settled down as it headed towards the break, with the Hammers continuing to stay organised, as they looked to restrict City to as little as possible.
But the second goal would come for the Citizens - a poor attempted pass from Flaherty went straight into the path of Chloe Kelly, who dispatched beyond Mackenzie Arnold with ease to put Taylor’s side firmly in control.
But the Hammers finally got the goal that their play in the first half deserved. Evans, who had been lively in the opening stages latched onto a ball in behind from Leon and calmly rounded the goalkeeper and placed it beyond the covering defender to get the Hammers back into the contest.
In the early stages in the second half, White thought she’d finally added her second of the game, but it was again ruled out, this time for offside.
And the pressure kept on coming from the away side, but they couldn’t extend their lead in east London, as White headed wide from a deep cross in on 54 minutes.
Six minutes later, and the Hammers were almost back in it. Tameka Yallop drove forward with the ball and attempted to find Evans in behind, but play was brought back for offside as the Scotland international attempted to find Leon at the back post.
And the chances continued for the Hammers – more good play from Evans saw her feed the ball into Yallop, but Bronze did enough to put the Australian off when the crucial moment to shoot arrived.
But for all the chances, Manchester City were clinical themselves as they added a third in the 66th minute. Lauren Hemp robbed the ball from Lucy Parker, before weaving her way into the area and firing the ball beyond Arnold to put them back in firm control of the match.
The second half was much quieter than the first, with City slowing down the tempo of the match.
Svitková went close to adding her team’s second of the game, stinging the palms of Roebuck from inside the area.
Substitute, Filippa Angeldahl would test Arnold in the final ten minutes at Victoria Road, but the goalkeeper made a good save, tipping the effort onto the crossbar.
And the ‘keeper had to be alert to deny Stanway and an acrobatic effort late on to keep the score down.
But Hemp would add one final goal in stoppage time with a well-placed finish, as the Hammers bowed out of the competition with their heads held high.
West Ham United: Arnold; Fisk, Flaherty ©, Longhurst, Svitková, Parker, Yallop (Snerle 69), Hasegawa (Walker 78), Brynjarsdóttir, Evans, Leon.
Substitutes not used: Moore, Wyne, Stringer, Filis, Joel, Cissoko, Houssein.
Goals: Evans 42
Manchester City: Roebuck; Stokes, Greenwood (c), Coombs (Angeldahl 80), Kelly (Raso 62), Hemp, White (Stanway 69), Weir (Shaw 70), Bronze, Walsh, Kennedy.
Substitutes not used: Taieb, Keating, Mace.
Goals: White 21, Kelly 37, Hemp 66, 90+2
Referee: Abigail Byrne
Attendance: 1565
