Last-gasp header from Kate Longhurst earns West Ham draw with Tottenham

Kate Longhurst’s last-gasp looping header earned West Ham a fighting draw with Tottenham to prevent their London rivals from moving up to second in the Women’s Super League.

Spurs had looked set to move within two points of the WSL summit after Rosella Ayane’s penalty had set them on course for a seventh win of the campaign.

The result looked assured after Hawa Cissoko was sent off just moments after conceding the spot-kick but the Hammers dug in and celebrated a 1-1 draw following Longhurst’s injury-time effort.

A dull first-half was punctuated with a number of soft yellow cards, including one for Cissoko, before the game stuttered into life after the interval.

Cissoko took out Jiali Tang inside the box early in the second-half with Ayane turning home the resulting penalty for her first goal of the season.

Just moments later and Cissoko, who was not shown a yellow card for the penalty, was sent off after picking up a second booking for kicking the ball away having been penalised for a push on Jessica Naz.

West Ham reacted well and eventually got their reward for staying in the contest as midfielder Longhurst headed over Becky Spencer in the Spurs goal to secure a point with the hosts’ only effort on target.

Leaders Arsenal saw their game at home to Reading postponed while Chelsea’s trip to Everton was also called off with both fixtures affected by Covid cases.

Meanwhile, Leicester moved off the bottom of the table after a 1-0 win against Brighton.

The win is just the second in their WSL history for Leicester, while the result sees Brighton suffer their fourth consecutive league loss.

The Foxes took the lead in the 54th minute when Jess Sigsworth got on the end of a long ball down the right and found Shannon O’Brien, who calmly finished inside the box to score her first WSL goal.

Ashleigh Plumptre and Sigsworth both had chances to get a second for Leicester, but O’Brien’s second-half strike was enough to seal the three points.