Everton Women 1-4 Chelsea | WSL Match report: Phelan praises effort but honest about lack of quality

“Our thoughts are we expected a tough game and it turned out that way. I thought first half we were competitive, to a level. We went in at 1-1, but I think that the most important thing was the timing of the goals,” said the Everton boss.

“We had an opportunity when he hit the crossbar at 1-1, then by 53 minutes we were 3-1 down.

“Against the best players in the league, they are ruthless and they put you to the sword, and what was already a tough task, like it would be for any team, made it a bit too tough for us.

“There wasn’t a lack of effort in there, maybe a lack of quality and execution, but in the effort, that is something the players can give as a minimum and that is what we expect, and they have done that today.

“We just fell short against a really good team.” With Everton legend Leighton Baines and current Men’s Senior Team player Merlin Rohl in attendance, the Blues will have been encouraged by their showing in the first 45, only to see that hope extinguished as Cuthbert completed the scoring on 70 minutes. Everton kept going despite the game being over as contest and the crowd witnessed history as Phlean handed a debut to Laila Harbert, who replaced Momiki with five minutes of normal time remaining. Another break is now on the horizon for Phelan’s side, before attention turns to the Blues’ trip to the capital to face Arsenal on Wednesday 13 May at 7pm BST ( 2pm ET, 11am PT ).