Birmingham City manager Carla Ward has blasted the referee of their match against Arsenal for ‘one of the worst performances’ she’s ever seen.

Ward described Cristiana Hattersley as a ‘Sunday league referee’ and accused her of favouring the ‘big side’ when it came to contentious decisions.

Ward said: "I thought she was poor on the whole. There were five or six decisions in the first half where she didn’t know which way to give it so went with what I would call the ‘big side’.

Hattersley gave Arsenal two penalties during the match and despite missing  one the Gunners cruised to a 3-0 win.

Ward is not the first manager to hit out at the standard of refereeing in the WSL.

Manchester United’s Casey Stoney has repeatedly called for either more training or more experienced referees to be introduced in the league.