By Ian Herbert For The Daily Mail
Published: 22:30 BST, 5 May 2019 | Updated: 22:30 BST, 5 May 2019
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The small minds at the Premier League saw to it that the record attendance for a Women's FA Cup Final was not broken. Had the West Ham's men's team dead rubber with Southampton only been brought forward a few hours, the fixture would have smashed through the 50,000 barrier.
But the underdogs very much had their day, demonstrating in front of 43,264 people the very powerful reasons for commercial investment in a team such as theirs.
In the men's game, the hopes of a smaller side laying a glove on gargantuan spenders like Manchester City are receding fast, as the evidence of the past nine months only goes to show. But Saturday's final demonstrated that a women's side only one year into a professional existence can give the big spenders of the women's game a run for their money. With an additional investment of £1m - peanuts for Premier League clubs - the giants can be challenged.
Continental League Cup winners Manchester City claimed their second trophy of the season
Nick Cushing's City side have yet to be beaten in domestic competition this season
For 45 minutes, West Ham were picking apart the passing philosophy which makes all Manchester City's sides homogenous, stealing possession and challenging them on the counter attack. City manager Nick Cushing claimed the reasons for this were psychological. 'The opportunity to score at Wembley is so huge it might affect our decision-making' he said. Those comments grossly undervalued what West Ham brought to the occasion: players who were technically equal to City until the superior fitness of the winning side began to
