NORTH-East born footballer Steph Houghton is celebrating after Manchester City secured their first Women's Super League title following a 2-0 win against last season's champions Chelsea.

City, who needed only a point to dethrone Chelsea as they started the game seven points clear of their rivals, led 1-0 at half-time courtesy of Katie Chapman's own goal and Toni Duggan converted a penalty early in the second period.

It was another dominant display from City, who were runners-up to Chelsea last season after being pipped at the post. Nick Cushing's side are now unbeaten in 15 league games this time round, winning 13, and have conceded just one goal on home soil at the Academy Stadium.

City's squad players and coaching staff ran on to the pitch in celebration at the final whistle and Sunderland-born skipper Steph Houghton said their title triumph was thoroughly deserved.

"Wow what a feeling!" the England defender told BT Sport. "Look at the celebrations, this is what it means to the club and we really deserved that.

"We've scored the most goals and conceded the least goals - it just means everything.

"We wanted to be in control and even though they had periods of possession I thought they were never going to break us down.

"That's down to all the hard work, not just this week but the whole season. I wanted to come here and win trophies and we've done that."

Jane Ross went close to giving City a tenth-minute lead when her header was saved in the bottom corner by Chelsea goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer, with Chapman going close for the visitors.

But the home side took the lead in the 34th minute when Scott's near-post header from Duggan's corner took a deflection off Chapman before sneaking in at the far post.

City chased a second goal after the break and were rewarded in the 50th minute with a penalty converted by Duggan after Gilly Flaherty's careless challenge on Lucy Bronze.

Nikita Parris fired narrowly wide after twisting her way into the area and her replacement Kosovore Asllani should have done better when free in the box, but skewed her effort wide.

In the other 2pm kick-off in WSL, Birmingham beat Liverpool 2-1 at home to leapfrog them into fourth place in the table.

Corina Schroder gave Birmingham a 50th-minute lead and although Katie Zelem hauled Liverpool level from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute after Chloe Peplow's foul on Rosie White, Kerys Harrop headed home Jessica Carter's cross for the winner seven minutes later.