Manchester United 4 Tottenham 1

Such are the standards for Manchester United, as the only full-time side in the part-time Championship, that manager Casey Stoney’s assessment of their dismantling of league leaders Tottenham went thus: “I wasn’t pleased, and I don’t think the players should be pleased with that.”

What United captain Alex Greenwood had anticipated would be her side’s “biggest match of the season so far” ended up going the same way as so many others for United’s first-ever professional women’s team. Thanks largely to the majesty of Jess Sigworth, who moved her goal tally to eight in eight as she gleefully snatched a double, they had this wrapped up by half time.

“I actually think we should be playing teams more off the park,” Stoney continued. “We should be dominating the ball more. We’re full-time, I do appreciate that, and all the other teams aren’t, but I actually think it was a sensible decision by the club to go the way we’ve gone.

“Because let’s be honest, we didn’t know what we were going to be able to recruit in a very, very short space of time. We had three weeks to build a team, put staff in place and get everything in place. We never knew what was going to be able to happen to do that. We’re a very young team and we’re still growing. People criticise us, but half of our squad is WSL 2 players. It’s not as if they’re playing in a league dropping down. I don’t ever feel bad.”