Chelsea Women's head coach Sonia Bompastor criticised the condition of the pitch during the Women's League Cup final, questioning whether the same quality would be tolerated in the men's game.
Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 in the showpiece fixture at Pride Park, with an own goal from Yui Hasegawa deciding the game after Aoba Fujino's strike had cancelled out an early effort from Mayra Ramírez.
The poor condition of the pitch at Derby County's stadium came under scrutiny, with both managers commenting on the issue after the match.
"It's a bit of a shame to have this pitch for the final especially when you expect England to have the best pitches in the world," Bompastor said. "I'm not sure if it was a men's final it would be the same, so we just need to make sure we have the best facilities for us to play the games."
Chelsea captain Millie Bright was equally damning.
"No [it was] definitely not [up to standard for a final]," Bright said. "I think it's an amazing stadium. We were really lucky to be playing it here and it was really nice but I think when you come to a final, you do expect a lot more quality from the pitch.
"It is disappointing. It's a massive game, a massive, massive cup final. I think you can see the state of the pitch, which I'm guessing was not too good on TV either, but it kind of disrupts the game a little bit as well."
City's interim manager Nick Cushing echoed those sentiments, saying: "I obviously would like the pitch to be a little bit better. It is what it is. I'm sure the pitch will be better at the Joie Stadium [City's home stadium where they play on Wedneday night]."
Chelsea's victory on Saturday yielded the club's first title under Bompastor, who replaced legendary manager Emma Hayes last summer. It means Chelsea remain in the hunt for the quadruple, with the club still competing in the Women's Super League (WSL), the FA Cup and the Champions League.
"I'm really happy," Bompastor said. "I just said before the game that the most important thing is to bring a trophy to the club. From the beginning of the season, we said we are really ambitious and when youhave the opportunity to win a first title, that's always really positive. I'm really proud of my players today. The performance was maybe not a great one but we found a way to win the game."
This weekend's final marked the first of four meetings between City and Chelsea in the space of just 12 days, with the two sides set to meet again in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
"Psychologically it's really important to win the first one," Bompastor said. "It won't be the main element going into the next game but in terms of confidence, that's really positive, even in terms of recovery. You always recover better when you win the games. That's a big advantage, but it won't be enough just to think because we won today it will be enough to win the game on Wednesday."
Cushing added: "It's mine and the staff's job to swing this into being motivation rather than the deflation of losing or the fear that we're playing a better team. I'm quite a simple guy. If this feeling that you get when you lose in finals isn't not enough motivation to take you into the next game then we're playing the wrong game. We did enough to win the game today. We had many, many moments, and I was proud of that."
ESPN's Emily Keogh contributed to this report.