The weather was biblical, the football attritional and the stakes too high for much self-expression but the outcome was hugely significant. Manchester United went to the top of the Women’s Super League for the first time in their two-and-a-half year history on Sunday, so confirming their arrival among the division’s elite.
They’ve had the financial muscle to bring in players who make a difference – Tobin Heath and Alessia Russo, whose surgery on a thigh injury announced just before this game seemed like a potentially pivotal loss. But the players who turned this match were among the 21 Casey Stoney assembled in four weeks, two summers ago, as United finally invested in a women’s team.