Manchester City beat West Ham in the 2019 Women's FA Cup Final.

Manchester City beat West Ham in the 2019 Women's FA Cup Final.

It was early evening at Wembley Stadium and Steph Houghton was about to lift the Women's FA Cup for Manchester City. The massed ranks of claret and blue West Ham supporters had begun to drift good naturedly into the watery sunshine, down in the dumps and despondent perhaps but nonetheless delighted to be part of yet another ground breaking day for women's football. Besides, it isn't every day that you get to see a brand new football club reaching a major FA Cup Final with nothing to lose - apart that is from the match itself.

For West Ham women whose first Wembley FA Cup Final this was, came into this showpiece occasion as merely the underdogs expected to lose and lose quite heavily. But oh no football is much more unpredictable and capricious. Football likes to flirt brazenly with you, teasing, pulling faces at you, making a mockery of the odds and just being downright wonderful. True, Manchester City's 3-0 defeat of  West Ham was eventually far easier than it might have appeared at half time. But who would have expected a wet behind the ears West Ham women side to have held their own so creditably to at least half time and still not look out of place?

Now most of us know that the meteoric emergence of women's football on a global scale is so startling and quite astounding that to those who scoffed at the girls just over 20 years or so ago this was very much a confirmation of not only their blossoming skill on the ball but quite certainly a deserved reminder of just how far women's football has come in recent times. In fact this was both a vindication and revelation because the progress made by women in football is nothing short of remarkable.

Back in the early part of the 20th century Dick Kerr Ladies were very much the torch bearers of the game and their pioneering spirit has done much to enhance the profile of the sport now.  For years though nobody wanted to know the girls and ladies of the Beautiful Game. Football was meant to be played by men of machismo, men of rippling muscularity and masculinity not for the ladies who were supposed to be demure, full of femininity and whose preferred choice of sport should have been netball.

And yet women's football has taken giant strides towards international recognition on the world stage. Yesterday both Manchester City and West Ham proved that this could be indeed a woman's world  as well. With prime time BBC TV tea time coverage and a hugely appreciative 43,000 crowd packed to the rafters inside Wembley this was the kind of match which well and truly shot down in flames those hardened cynics who, still in their sexist ignorance, believe that a woman's place should be in the kitchen or next to a baking tray.

For Manchester City this must have felt like just another match with clear cut victory just 90 minutes away. The men find themselves on the verge of winning the Premier League again so what price of at least two trophies in the cabinet? Admittedly, the Manchester City women couldn't quite coast to a League Championship triumph but then maybe City have been too successful anyway so the FA Cup was more than ample reward for their noble endeavours.

Surprisingly though this was not to be the stroll in Wembley Park that City were just assuming that it would be. For at least an hour of this game, West Ham were running into all the right spaces, carving out  channels and breaking forward with the kind of measured football that City were not expecting. In fact West Ham should have taken the lead with a close range header from a neatly delivered cross that didn't quite have the power to beat Manchester City keeper Karen Bardsley.

But with West Ham keeper Anna Moorhouse supported ably and consistently by a back four including Gilly Flaherty, Abbie Simon and Brooke Hendrix, the game wasn't quite going according to City's plan. West Ham midfield architects Gilly Flaherty, an experienced player full of worldly wisdom, Claire Rafferty, Ria Percival and Alisha Lehmann were soon disrupting City's quick moving, stylish first time passing game with hustling, chasing down and the surrounding of City's attackers.

Sadly though the second half arrived for West Ham and shortly the very talented likes of Steph Houghton, Demi Stokes roaming, pushing and probing and Jill Scott turning the West Ham defence with neat  passes and swift running, this was a Manchester City who knew that their superior know how on the day would win out quite categorically despite any West Ham resistance.

The winning City goals were of course as inevitable as day following night. Keira Walsh, who was beginning to wreak havoc with West Ham's wilting defence with her danger and directness, picked up the ball just outside the West Ham penalty area and struck, it has to be said, quite tamely and weakly at West Ham keeper Anna Moorhouse who regrettably misjudged the pace of the ball allowing the ball to trickle over her body and into the net. City were now in front and increasingly dominant.

With the game now passing by a now exhausted and leaden footed West Ham, City began to overwhelm this new team in claret and blue. Swarms of light blue City shirts flooded into attack, homing in on the  West Ham back line with a craft and confidence that now put West Ham to the sword. Georgina Stanway, who had also done much to keep West Ham at arms length, roared forward, scuttling quickly into the West Ham half  before cutting inside a now bedraggled West Ham defence and driving the ball firmly past a flailing West Ham keeper.

It almost seemed desperately unfair on a  valiant  West Ham team. The third City goal right at the end seemed rough justice but when Lauren Hemp started sprinting for goal there seemed no way that West Ham would ever find a way of stemming the light blue City tide. Somewhat comically Anna Moorhouse, who'd thoroughly enjoyed her first Wembley experience, raced out of goal only to find that she'd also lost her bearings and Hemp coolly lobbed Moorhouse for City's decisive third.

For those whose first visit to Wembley this had been this was an undoubtedly rewarding experience,  the crowds of jovial City and West Ham supporters  happily making their way along Wembley way, walking as one towards Wembley Park knowing full well that women's football had once again underlined its burgeoning status and rightful place in the sun. What, you wondered, would Dick Kerr's Ladies thought of it all? We could only wonder.