Blues prepare for cup final and see out their home season in style with a fine display against Liverpool.

The last home game of the season for Blues meant it was a great opportunity for the club and ourselves to put on a number of activities and invite fans to come and support the team. There was a number of bouncy castles and a hog roast to go with the football games taking place on the back field. All the sister clubs had been invited to the game, as had Blues4all (@blues_4_all) who were attending their first ladies game while also promoting the fans for diversity campaign run by The Football Supporters Federation (@The_FSF).

Onto the game itself with Blues making a number of changes from the last outing with Baggaley in goal for Berger, Peplow in for Hegerberg and Schroder making her debut in place of Westwood. In the opening 20 minutes it was Liverpool who looked the more dangerous with Lundh having a shot saved by Baggaley and White seeing her shot deflected wide. Blues grew into the half though with neat interplay between Ayisi and Linnett setting up Lawley for a shot from the edge of the box which was blocked by White. More neat play down the right hand side by Ayisi saw a delightful ball whipped to the back post where Linnett was waiting but she was unable to convert her header into an open goal and the best chance of the first half was gone.

Blues picked up at the start of the second half where they left the end of the first with good work from Haines and Peplow in the middle resulting in the ball reaching Schroder just inside the Liverpool box, the neatly placed left footed effort was enough to beat Chamberlain in the Liverpool goal and put Blues 1 up. Linden, who was a sub at the time, was clearly delighted with the goal joining in with the on pitch celebrations although it cost her a yellow card.

Liverpool hit back just after the hour mark when Peplow gave away a penalty for a mistimed challenge just inside the area. Baggaley went the right way but Zelem put the ball out of reach in the bottom right corner of the goal. It was probably a goal against the run of play, Blues had looked comfortable in the second half and continued to push forwards and soon found themselves back in front. A long throw from Carter was met by the head of Harrop who’s flicked header was enough to see the ball loop over Chamberlain and drop over the line, is this a later charge for top goal scorer award?. Van de Sanden came closest to equalising for Liverpool with a cross come shot which Baggaley had to tip over the bar.

Overall an excellent display to go forward into next weeks cup final. Plenty of positives, not only the result but the player of the match performance from Schroder and it was good to see Sargeant back on the pitch again coming off the bench in the second half.