Gareth Taylor felt City could’ve come away with a victory on another day after being knocked out of the Continental Cup semi-finals.

Chelsea came away from the Joie Stadium with a 1-0 victory thanks to Lauren James’ early goal and managed to keep City at bay despite a dominant second half display.

With a strong penalty shout waved away at the death and Hannah Hampton in inspired form for the visitors, Taylor felt his side were unfortunate not to grab a result.

ETIHAD DERBY | BUY YOUR TICKETS

He said: “Games between us [and Chelsea] now are really close. We just couldn’t quite get over the line in the second half.

“Hannah Hampton was their best player, we were impressive in how we controlled the game.

“We had good moments, gave away a cheap goal but in the second half we were great. We just needed the rub of the green.”

The defeat means City’s winning run ends at 12 matches, but Taylor doesn’t think his players will need picking up too much after the setback.

And the boss has called for the squad to match the levels of performance that they reached in the second half at the Joie Stadium ahead of an exciting end to the campaign.

“I think we’ll move forward by going after what we did well in the second half,” Taylor added.

“I said to the girls, you were fantastic, it was one of the best half performances I’ve seen without the final bit, which is the goal.

“We have seven games in the WSL, hopefully three in the FA Cup so 10 games left. There’s no motivation needed, the players were very good in the game and after in terms of being humble and supportive.

“We’re disappointed but we move onto the next one and try to win the FA Cup.”