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Everton Ladies 2-0 Liverpool Ladies

Ladies unfortunate in derby defeat. By Ashley Houghton.

Everton Ladies 2 - 0 Liverpool Ladies

Halton Stadium

Attendance: 625

LIVERPOOL Ladies were defeated 2-0 by local rivals Everton in a hard-fought local derby in the Women’s Super League at Widnes Vikings’ Halton Stadium.

First-half goals from Brooke Chaplen and Lucia Bronze were enough for The Blues as The Reds were made to pay for defensive errors.

Robbie Johnson made one change to side that lost 3-1 to Birmingham last time out with Lynda Shepherd replacing Nicki Harding.

Liverpool started brightly and had a great chance to take the lead after just 10 minutes when Kelly Jones broke into the area and cut back for Katie Brushell, but the Liverpool winger’s connection was poor and the ball went wide of Rachel Brown’s left hand post.

Everton got into the game more as the half went on and thought they had taken the lead themselves when Fara Williams’ free-kick found the head of Toni Duggan, but Duggan was thwarted by a wonderful save from Nicola Davies.

Davies once again saved Liverpool minutes later, this time tipping Jill Scott’s header onto the crossbar.

All of Liverpool’s hard work was undone on 24 minutes when Davies, who had been superb in the early stages, had her clearance intercepted by Chaplen and the Everton midfielder curled the ball elegantly into the top left hand corner from the edge of the area.

The visitors found themselves two behind 15 minutes later as first-half substitute, Bronze, found space on the edge of the area and  her right-footed strike nestled in the top left hand corner of Davies goal.

The Reds reacted immediately to that goal and were unfortunate not to pull a goal back when Jones broke down the left again but her cross just evaded Emily Gielnik.

HALF TIME: EVERTON 2 – 0 LIVERPOOL

The hosts were the quicker out of the blocks in the second-half as Duggan’s shot from Bronze’s cut-back clipped the bar and went over.

Nikita Parris, who was lively throughout, created multiple opportunities in the second-half the best falling to Chaplen who headed wide from close range.

Liverpool failed to create many clear openings with their best chance falling to Hannah Keryakoplis, but the striker couldn’t adjust her body to get the required power to test Brown.

Everton continued to attack throughout the closing stages as Scott fed through Bronze but the midfielder couldn’t get her second as she blasted over from eight yards.

Liverpool keeper Davies, will perhaps find herself unfortunate to be on the losing side as she once again produced a fine save in injury time, this time tipping Dowie’s header over from six yards.