Delighted boss Lauren Smith said Bristol City deserved their first points of the Women's Super League season as they edged out West Ham 3-2 on Sunday. 

The visitors came from behind thanks to goals from Amalie Thestrup, Ella Powell and Brooke Aspin and Smith felt the victory was just reward for their hard work. 

She said: "I am so happy. The players deserve it, fom what we've been working on and how they've progressed in a short period of time to get used to this level.

"It showed that the hard work really matters — sometimes it's ugly hard work and sometimes it's enjoyable. 

"We've caused ourselves a couple of problems defensively, the second goal was our mistake. If those don’t happen, we make less mistakes. 

"West Ham made some quite aggressive subs, they were running in behind constantly, and I think we handled that really well."

The Hammers struck first after 27 minutes as Viviane Asseyi scored from the penalty spot after Megan Connolly handled. 

Bristol City hit back and stunned their hosts by turning the game on its head in a six-minute spell. 

A cross from the left after 32 minutes from Rachel Furness found Thestrup, who got in between two defenders to head past Mackenzie Arnold. 

The goalscorer then turned provider when her overhead kick in the area was spilled by Arnold into the path of Powell, who followed up for her first WSL goal. 

West Ham changed the complexion of the game again two minutes into stoppage time as Riko Ueki turned and shot past Kaylan Marckese for the equaliser. 

But Aspin netted the winner nine minutes after the restart when she headed home a Connolly free-kick. 

West Ham boss Rehanne Skinner said: "We didn't break them down as well as we could have, they were putting bodies on the line. They defended well. 

"I was disappointed with all three goals. They were cheap goals that could have been dealt with. 

"That's something we need to look at, to be more aggressive around the box, so we don't concede goals like that."