Sam Kerr did not mark her eagerly awaited return to Chelsea’s Kingsmeadow Stadium home with her customary goal — but she got the next best thing with an ecstatic welcome back from her adoring army of Blues’ fans.
A roar resounded around the ground in the 69th minute of Chelsea’s Women’s Super League clash against Leicester as the home crowd offered substitute Kerr a standing ovation and a hero’s welcome for her first match there in more than 21 months.
After all her injury woes, what they then got was a fairly subdued return from the 32-year-old striker, as she could not really get into the game while the champions held on to their 1-0 lead and moved clear at the top of the WSL table with three wins out of three.
Such is her record at Kingsmeadow that Kerr, whose face adorned the front of the match day programme, is always expected to find the target at the little arena in south-west London, especially after her return at Aston Villa the previous week in her first match for 634 days, when she came off the bench to score in stoppage time.
But she was unable to find that much-hoped-for follow-up to her 100th Chelsea goal, as the nearest she came was when she could not quite get on the end of some fine work from Aggie Beever-Jones, who had made a thrusting run.
It was England international Beever-Jones whose third goal in three games after just 7 minutes had earlier proved enough to seal the points for Chelsea, but they still did not look anywhere near their sharpest despite their perfect nine-point haul.
Beever-Jones took advantage of a ricochet off Celeste Boureille to unerringly hit the target with a neat, lifted finish but Chelsea failed to kick on, even after the break, when coach Sonia Bompastor brought on the club’s record signing, Alyssa Thompson.
She did not have much of an impact and neither did Kerr when finally introduced, to considerable excitement, for her 20-minute cameo.
Instead, it was another Matilda, Emily van Egmond, who had the chance to earn her new team, Leicester, a late if unlikely point.
The veteran midfielder, who may have been lucky to still be on the field after a booking for a rough first-half challenge, had the chance to volley home a rebound after teammate Rosella Ayane had hit the bar, but she could only balloon her shot over.
Later, Manchester United and Arsenal, who featured Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord in their starting line-up, could only share a goalless draw, leaving Chelsea two points clear as they seek a seventh straight WSL title.
Foord produced one of the liveliest moments in a dull game, as she cut in from the left and shot just wide near the end of the first half.
Liverpool’s fixture at Aston Villa was postponed, and a minute’s silence was observed in the other games of the day for former Reds and Chelsea manager Matt Beard, who had died over the weekend at the age of 47.
The Katrina Gorry-captained West Ham are now bottom without a point after a 4-1 defeat by Dario Vidošić’s Brighton & Hove Albion, who moved up to sixth in the table.
AAP