An 86th-minute winner from England captain Steph Houghton secured a 2-1 victory for City to move them within four points of leaders Sunderland, with a game in hand.
Chelsea 1-2 Man City
FA WSL 1
Wheatsheaf Park, Staines Town FC
Sunday 26 July 2015
Amid the jubilation Duggan stopped to consider what might have been had City lost in front of the record crowd of 1,857 at Staines Town – Chelsea would have moved two points clear of the chasing pack and nine ahead of City.
Duggan, who opened the scoring, said: “I can’t tell you how big the win was. If we had lost today then we would have been out of it [the title race].
“We want to be up there with the big teams and we knew it was probably out of reach in the first season and we would have a more realistic chance this year.
“We know it is going to be tough because there are some great teams up there and I’m sure everyone believes they can win the league, but we have great belief in our squad and we have just got to look after our own business and not worry about the other teams.”
Toni Duggan fires home Manchester City's first goal
The visitors took the lead in the 12th minute when Hannah Blundell failed to clear Daphne Corboz’s diagonal pass, instead playing the ball into the path of Duggan who applied a cool right-footed finish.
However, Emma Hayes’s Chelsea side got off to the perfect start in the second-half when the City defence failed to close down Eniola Aluko on the edge of the box, allowing her to fire the ball into the bottom left corner.
The England striker had the opportunity to put her side ahead midway through the half but she headed wide of the target.
Katie Chapman and Isobel Christiansen chase for the ball
And City skipper Houghton made her pay when with minutes remaining, her free-kick was deflected off Claire Rafferty in the wall and wrong-footed Hedvig Lindahl in the Blues’ goal.
Aluko said: “It was always going to be a hard-fought game and there’s a rivalry between the two teams.
“We had to work hard off the ball to make sure we were defensively solid and to be done by a goal like that in the last ten minutes was tough.
Steph Houghton drills the matchwinning free-kick towards goal
“There’s still a long way to go in this league and we aren’t too down about the result because we showed a lot of heart and fight today.
“We got the equaliser and it was looking like a draw until the sucker punch at the end.”
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Chelsea (4-3-3): Hedvig Lindahl; Hannah Blundell, Niamh Fahey, Gilly Flaherty, Claire Rafferty; Millie Bright, Katie Chapman, Drew Spence (Laura Coombs 65); Gemma Davison, Eniola Aluko (Ana Borges 88), Ji So-Yun.
Subs not used: Marie Hourihan, Jodie Brett, Anne Meiwald, Marija Banusic, Atlanta Primus
Bookings: Niamh Fahey
Red cards: None
Manchester City (4-3-3): Karen Bardsley; Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton, Kathleen Radtke, Demi Stokes; Jennifer Beattie, Jill Scott, Izzy Christiansen; Daphne Corboz (Krystle Johnston 76), Toni Duggan, Nikita Parris.
Subs not used: Alex Brooks, Abbie McManus, Georgia Brougham, Emma Lipman.
Bookings: None
Red cards: None
Attendance: 1,857
