Ella Toone scored a hat-trick on her return to WSL action as Manchester United Women punished Manchester City Women’s sloppy mistakes to win 4-2 in a pulsating Manchester derby.
Toone missed games in November and December with a calf injury and continued his scoring return to form with an incredible hat-trick at the Etihad Stadium.
“I’ve been through a lot and when I got injured it was a blessing,” Toone told Sky Sports after the game.
“Looking back now, it took me, not just physically but mentally. I used my time wisely to get back fit and stronger, but more importantly, I took care of myself.
“I let the girls know – ‘girls, I’ve never scored in a Manchester derby, I’ve never scored against City’, and for a girl who supports Manchester United, I know what these derbies mean. I want to go into every game and do something on the pitch and put shift for girls.
“But today I wanted a goal and I managed to get three, so it’s a special day for me and I couldn’t have done it without the players and the staff.”
Man Utd were sharper from the start and Toone made it the first in the 14th minute. Elisabeth Terland miscued but the English midfielder lurked to head home. Leah Galton (21) then doubled the lead soon after, scoring from close range as Man City failed to clear a corner.
Gareth Taylor’s side continued to struggle, with a poorly placed back pass – which came just seconds after the second when Terland almost scored – allowing Toone to score his second goal (36). She latched on to a loose pass before slotting a simple shot past her England team-mate Khiara Keating.
But the recovery seemed to start at the end of the first half as Man City scored twice to bring the score back to 3-2. Vivianne Miedema (40) – herself returning to league action from injury – headed home Mary Fowler’s cross, before Rebecca Knaak (45+3) scored her first WSL goal since joining the club a few weeks ago.
However, 10 seconds after the restart, another moment to forget for Keating allowed Toone to complete his hat-trick. The keeper hung on to the ball too long from the kick-off, with the deflection falling into Toone’s path. She won the race against Keating and scored a goal.
For all their errors at one end, Man City poured in shots and chances in a dominant second half. However, some inspired moments from Phallon Tullis-Joyce prevented them from making a real comeback.
It is Manchester Utd’s first away win in a Manchester derby and sends them above Man City into third place in the WSL table. Taylor’s side – who have now lost back-to-back games in the WSL – drop to fourth place, two points off a Champions League place.
Analysis: Man City’s flawed Man City lack a plan B
Sky Sports’ Laura Hunter:
Is this the moment Manchester United enter the title race? An emphatic derby win will all but make City’s hopes of a second WSL crown all the sweeter.
Gareth Taylor’s team started the day in second and ended it in fourth. The number of mistakes they made were completely uncharacteristic, but equally reflective of Man United’s brash approach.
Fortune favors the brave.
They pressed high from the first minute, forced mistakes and capitalized on City’s every slip.
Marc Skinner’s side suffocated their hosts and again it was City who had 74 percent of the ball. The fact that United scored four goals with such a meager share of possession makes the result even more remarkable.
Too often City relied on their ability to overpower their opponents into submission and in the absence of any plan B, they were defeated by a smarter game plan.
Praise for Toone: She is an inspiration
Man Utd goal scorer Ella Toone to Sky Sports:
“We are also speechless. This is a derby, so it means a lot. We gave a great shift and a great game. I think we deserved it.
“We are doing well. Sometimes people write us off, but we know what kind of team we have. We have personality, we have attitude, we have work rate and we give our best every time we step on the pitch and we enjoy playing together.”
Man Utd the gatekeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce to Sky Sports:
“We have a really brave team and women who are willing to do anything and that’s what we certainly saw today, especially Toonie.
“She was just an absolute inspiration. Watching her from the sidelines, she was the first one on the practice field and the last one to leave. She earned every second of this moment by working so hard to get back.”
Man Utd manager Marc Skinner to Sky Sports:
“Sometimes you can get a message from above. The reality was that Ella has played a hell of a lot of football in the last two or three years and she’s grown up and gained so much experience. For me, we need a Toonie who loves football, that’s the kind of player England need and Manchester United.
“At the end of the game, I asked her if she enjoyed herself and she said yes. I’ll take that, as well as the three points, because it’s all about the people at Manchester United.”
Taylor: We got it wrong
Man City safe Gareth Taylor to Sky Sports:
“Our build-up game is usually a really strong part of our game. It’s the way I like to play, because it allows us to get there as a team, but we made a few mistakes tonight.
“The goals we scored killed the momentum. Between the penalty area we were quite good, but we gave away too many opportunities.
“They were easy goals. Sometimes when you play like that, when the decision is wrong, it’s frustrating to give away what we did in that way. The fourth was difficult to concede because it’s a situation we shouldn’t be in.”
Speaking of Khiare Keating’s series of mistakeshe added: “It’s difficult for her, she’s a young goalkeeper, but she’s been very good for us. It’s not the first time, it happened last season and all goalkeepers go through it. What we want to see is the strength of character to come back.”
Skinner: We made Man City make mistakes
Man Utd manager Marc Skinner to Sky Sports:
“My enjoyment comes from a team enjoying their football and we gave a really good account of ourselves. I know we’re going to talk about the mistakes Man City made, but we made them make mistakes.
“We’ve had a bit of criticism in the bigger games this season where we’ve been a bit passive, but tonight we were just ‘right, we’ll go to Man City’. We forced mistakes and got our rewards tonight.
“I’ve been here before. Two seasons ago we won at the Emirates. We gave games to teams and our team is new and young again. They had to learn the environments on the big stage. Tonight is a great learning curve for them.
“I think the thing that outweighs the lack of experience is personality and fearlessness. I felt like we had that in abundance tonight.
“This is a great win for our whole club. We will go forward and play them again on Wednesday [in the League Cup]which will be interesting.
“We are going to rest, recover and be ready to play another game against them.”
Match in statistics
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