Everton captain Megan Finnigan believes the Blues' victory over West Ham United was a just reward for weeks of hard work and positive performances.

Italian duo Martina Piemonte and Aurora Galli netted second-half strikes last time out in the 2-0 win at Walton Hall Park, which was the Toffees’ first home win so far this season.

Finnigan says the result was well-deserved, and the skipper spoke about her delight at being able to repay the home support for their unwavering efforts.

“It feels amazing,” she told evertontv after victory over West Ham. “Obviously, it’s our first win at Walton Hall Park this year, so that in itself is an amazing feeling for us.

“The league table doesn’t lie in terms of results, but where we are as a group, we’re trying to do certain things. We’re actually quite happy with most of our performances this year. We’ve just not got the results to go with it.

“For the fans sometimes, it must be difficult. They don’t necessarily see what we do day in and day out, whereas we know [about the hard work] and we know what we’re doing on the training pitch every single week, so we just have stick with that, trust that process.

“[The fans] are always supporting us, always singing for us. It’s a really nice moment for them and it’s nice to pay them back for all their effort, as well.”

Tough tests follow for Everton, who travel to take on title-chasers Manchester City on Saturday (12pm GMT), before, a week later, facing a home tie against Chelsea in the Women’s FA Cup, with the visiting five-time winners targeting a fourth consecutive triumph in the competition.

Nevertheless, Finnigan believes the "togetherness" of an improving Blues side, whose recent league victory followed a stunning 7-1 Cup win at Nottingham Forest, could be a key factor in the coming weeks.

“We’ve really come together, and we got the result today in the league and we’ve also got an FA Cup quarter-final to look forward to,” she added.

“In the last few weeks, while the results might not have been there, the work rate and the performances definitely have been. It feels like we really deserved [the win].

“The togetherness of the team – I can’t fault it. It’s a really good group of girls. I’ve said the talent is there and we’ve known that all season.”