Honoka Hayashi salvaged a point in stoppage time as a dramatic meeting between Leicester and West Ham ended in a 1-1 draw at the King Power Stadium.

A scrappy start saw West Ham mount the more threatening attacks, with Riko Ueki causing problems for the hosts and the best chance of the half coming when Jessica Ziu fired wide.

The visitors were left to rue their missed opportunities in front of goal in an entertaining second half as Leicester took the lead through Lena Petermann and a poor afternoon for West Ham seemingly got worse when captain Hawa Cissoko was sent off in stoppage time.

However, they left it late to strike as Hayashi rescued a point at the death to avoid the Hammers dropping to the bottom of the table.

West Ham grew into the game, with Ueki trying to create chances for the visitors, but they struggled to find the target until Ziu had a great opportunity palmed away by Janina Leitzig.

Ueki caused problems again for Leicester as a great touch from Viviane Asseyi played the striker through, but she skewed her shot just wide of the post.

The Hammers should have gone ahead on the half-hour mark after a brilliant pass from Ueki played Ziu through one-on-one with Leitzig, but she rolled her shot wide.

Leicester had a chance when Petermann laid the ball off to Jutta Rantala, who fired wide, before West Ham defended well to clear from Aimee Palmer’s corner that pinballed around the box.

An entertaining start to the second half saw Leicester nearly punished when they were unable to clear Ueki’s effort which fell to Asseyi, who fired over the bar.

The Hammers’ frustrations in front of goal continued moments later as Ueki’s bouncing header was blocked by Palmer before being clawed away by Leitzig and Asseyi blasted the rebound over the bar again.

Leitzig was then forced to react quickly after miscontrolling the ball, which hit the post, and a rare attack from the Foxes saw Aileen Whelan’s looped effort from an awkward angle flash wide of the post.

The deadlock was eventually broken in the 68th minute after a great break from Rantala found Whelan and the captain passed low to Petermann, who smashed the ball beyond Megan Walsh.

Whelan had an opportunity moments later but was denied in a coming-together with Walsh and the momentum was firmly with Leicester as some frenetic defending from the Hammers saw Petermann’s shot deflected wide.

West Ham suddenly charged up the pitch as Ueki picked out Emma Harries but Leitzig made a great save before the ball was cleared.

Janice Cayman fired an effort wide as Leicester looked to see the game out and the Hammers were handed another blow five minutes into stoppage time as captain Cissoko was shown two yellow cards within two minutes of each other.

Despite being a player down, West Ham came back to equalise eight minutes into added time as Princess Ademiluyi’s cross was bundled in at the far post by Hayashi to snatch a point.