In Sunday’s semi-final held at Leigh Sports Village, Manchester United raced into a two-goal lead by scoring similar headed goals, the first inside the very first minute by Lucia Garcia, followed by one from Rachel Williams midway through the opening half.

Despite those set-backs, Emma Hayes side were bossing possession but without many chances created, and it felt like a goal before half-time was needed if we were going to have a chance to turn this one around. That came moments before the break when Lauren James, against her former club, converted a Niamh Charles cross.

The second half was almost entirely one-way traffic and there were good claims for penalties that were not awarded, but with Mary Earps in prime form in the Man United goal, the home side, despite playing with the weight of a previously bad record against Chelsea on their backs, managed to keep us out under immense pressure and deny a London derby final against Tottenham.

The worst start

In the previous FA Cup rounds, Chelsea had beaten West Ham, Crystal Palace and Everton, while Man U defeated Newcastle United, Southampton and Brighton to set up a repeat of last year’s final at this semi-final stage.

On that occasion a year ago, Chelsea were 1-0 winners but any hope of a clean sheet in this re-match evaporated with only 42 seconds of the game played. The opening goal came following a mistake, Eve Perisset slicing an attempted pass back towards Hannah Hampton. Leah Galton, snapping up the chance to capitalise, crossed to the far post and Garcia headed firmly beyond the Chelsea goalkeeper.

James had the first shot for Chelsea but scooped it well off target. However, we were steadily gaining a foothold in the game. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, on the shortlist for WSL Player of the Month for March, skilfully cut inside her marker and drilled a shot straight at Earps.

It needed excellent pace from Jess Carter to prevent her England team-mate Ella Toone making something of a long ball forward down the middle but soon after, it was Toone crossing for the home side’s second goal having got past Melanie Leupolz. This time it was Williams, a former Chelsea striker, who was in the middle to head home.

Two-nil down, there was still three-quarters of the game to go, but it was clear we needed to tighten up down our right flank to avoid further damage.

Lifeline from Lauren

The first half continued with Chelsea having plenty of the ball in the Man United half but not enough of it in front of goal. There was an interruption to the probing when Mayra Ramirez came off worse in an accidental clash of heads. Thankfully, after treatment, the Colombian played on and looked lively in the final minutes of the half, including a header wide from a Rytting Kaneryd cross.

There was still enough time for Chelsea to cut the deficit through James, who had only just been denied by a quality save from Earps. For the goal, the overlapping Charles ran onto a Guro Reiten pass and dashed behind the United defence, squaring for James to finish first time.

The genuine danger created in that short spell was good cause for optimism for the second half ahead.

Indeed the home side were very much on the back foot when the game resumed and it took another Earps save at full stretch to keep out another James header.

The England goalkeeper continued to frustrate us by parrying shots from Erin Cuthbert and James. Today’s captain Cuthbert had been a notable bright spark for the visitors.

After an earlier good shout for a Chelsea penalty for handball, Charles’ strong claim for a penalty after she was caught by Williams' flailing leg was turned down, just before Hayes increased the goalscoring potential by bringing on Sjoeke Nusken and Cat Macario, and then Aggie Beever-Jones and Fran Kirby. There were 20 minutes to go.

Man United racked up yellow cards as they continued to fight a rearguard action, which included Earps tipping an inswinging corner onto her crossbar.

The Blues pushed and pushed and pushed, and Beever-Jones hit the side-netting late on, but we had sacrificed bodies at the back and inside eight minutes of added time played, Nikita Parris could have finished the contest but her shot was straight at Hampton.

In the end and with some frantic defending, Man United’s 2-1 advantage proved enough.

What it means

Following our exit from the last of this season’s domestic cup competitions, two possible trophies remain with the WSL run-in and a Champions League semi-final against Barcelona on the near horizon.

What’s next?

There is midweek WSL action when the Blues host Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow. Kick-off on Wednesday is 7pm. Click for tickets, including for the Stamford Bridge match against Barcelona

Chelsea Hampton; Perisset (Lawrence 82), Carter, Buchanan (Nusken 70), Charles; Cuthbert (c) (Kirby 76), Leupolz; Rytting Kaneryd (Beever-Jones 76), James, Reiten (Macario 70); Ramirez
Unused subs Musovic, Ingle, Cankovic, Hamano
Scorer James 45+4
Booked James 45+5

Man United Earps; Mannion, Le Tissier, Turner, Blundell; Naalsund, Zelem (c); Garcia, Toone (Ladd 64), Galton (Parris 70); Williams (Malard 70)
Unused subs Tullis-Joyce, Evans, Aherne, Guerrero, Miyazawa, Geyse
Scorers Garcia 1, Williams 23
Booked Turner 45+5, Garcia 68, Mannion 77, Parris 78, Earps 79

Referee Kirsty Dowle