Mayhem at Man City overshadowed Khiara Keating show in WSL draw with Chelsea

Manchester City were minutes away from securing three points against Chelsea with only nine players on the field for the home side. Chelsea pulled it back to level terms in stoppage time after both Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp were shown double yellow cards to end the game a goal a piece.

The captain was dismissed before the break for a foul and then time-wasting, while Hemp received two yellows for rough play. There were 11 bookings made at Joie Stadium, seven by half time. The majority, seven, was shown to City players and Chelsea walked away with three.

City boss Gareth Taylor also found himself in the referee's book: “My frustration was, there was a moment the referee couldn’t really make a decision. Waits for the team to probably appeal the most - it was a really contentious one. That is when I turned to the fourth official and said ‘Who’s in charge of the game here, who’s making the decisions?’ And I was yellow-carded for it.

“Probably rightly so I was animated because you want to be there for your players, we were defending with our lives. It's so hard to be completely cut apart from it all on the sidelines,” he added.

“[But] I’m super proud of the team, I thought we were fantastic. I thought we started the game amazingly well. I had a feeling that we held our own today and we started the game on the front foot, putting them under high pressure and we did and we and we scored and we looked like we were going to score every time we got into the box. And obviously, the game changer is the red cards of Alex [Greenwood].

“I don't think it ruined the game for me especially, but I think it ruined the game for everyone. Me and Emma [Hayes] spoke to each other mid-way through halftime, we just looked at each other like