The Blues were twice pegged back by the hosts as goals from Sam Kerr and Pernille Harder were cancelled out by efforts from City’s Chloe Kelly and Lauren Hemp.City searched for a third goal to give them a much-needed win in the race for the Barclays FA Women’s Super League title, but Chelsea managed to withstand large periods of pressure from the hosts and Hayes hailed the character shown by her players to hold out and earn a vital point.‘It was a resilient performance. Not a good performance, a resilient one,’ admitted Hayes.‘We took our goals well, but we made hard work of it in the second half. We were very poor by our standards and I’m just grateful to get the point. It was really tough.’

It was City who created more chances throughout the top of the table clash, but it was the contribution in key moments from Blues players Kerr and Ann-Katrin Berger that meant Chelsea came away from contest the happier of the two teams.Kerr headed the Blues into the lead against the run of the play on 25 minutes and after Kelly levelled for City, the Australian won a penalty for her side which Harder converted.Kerr is now top of the WSL goal scoring charts with 18 goals and Hayes highlighted the striker’s performance as a huge factor in Chelsea maintaining our spot at the top of the league standings with two games remaining.Hayes said: ‘This is a player that was creating chances for fun, maybe not finishing at that point but you have to respect the ease of which she used to go beyond players and now she’s got the whole package.‘Her hold-up play, her link play, her role from set-pieces, her ability to run behind, her transitional play, everything. I think she’s playing the best football of her career and she was the difference for us.‘She is relentless, a wonderful athlete and a wonderful human but we need to speak about her ability in games. It was second to none in what was a really stressful game. She delivered the biggest moments for the team when it mattered and she’s doing it time and time again.’

While Kerr played an important role in our two goals at The Academy Stadium, Berger was equally influential at the other end.The most notable save from Berger came minutes after Hemp’s second-half equaliser, and it was the goalkeeper’s quick reaction and agility that tipped a goal-bound header from Hemp onto the bar.‘As I say time and time again, you can score goals to win games but defence wins championships,’ said Hayes.‘She is an unbelievable asset to the team, and she is the best goalkeeper in this country. Along with Christiane Endler, I think they are the best in the world. She’s improving, the more pressure, the more she responds.‘I know people thought I had wonderful goalkeepers, but I knew what she was capable of and I refused to let her play anywhere else. I wanted her here at this football club and she has justified that decision fully and more.’

Hayes was full of praise for our goalkeeper’s outstanding performance, but Berger was modest when speaking at full-time and diverted the plaudits onto her team-mates for their part in securing the point.Berger said: ‘It was an interesting and intense game, but I just did my part. The girls in front of me, I don’t know how many shots they blocked!‘It looks maybe more spectacular from my side, but I just did my job.‘I think our team performance and how the girls stood up with all that pressure showed what we can do even under so much pressure. That is a big key in what we’ve done this season and hopefully we can go on now to win the title.’