LFC WomenMatt Beard column: Arsenal joy, injury latest and Aston Villa preview

It goes without saying that it was a very pleasant coach journey back from Arsenal last Sunday and I was so proud of the team.

I was really pleased to start the season with a win, especially away from home after all the noise about us not winning an away game last season, and a clean sheet.

It was a tough week for us leading up to the game because we had five players who had COVID, Sophie Roman Haug broke her nose on international duty, so it was tough and we also lost Jasmine Matthews and Yana Daniels the day before the game.

So, to go there and perform like we did and walk away with the three points, I was delighted.

• Get tickets for LFC Women v Everton Women at Anfield here - just £1 for U18s

It was special for Miri Taylor to get the goal, her first for the club, and I’m delighted for her. It was a well-worked goal.

We had worked on how they play out from the back and how low their full-backs go, so we made sure we kept our second centre-forward in between their centre-backs and I thought Marie Höbinger, Fuka [Nagano] and Bo [Missy Bo Kearns] were all excellent in forcing them into the turnover. It was a great bit of skill from Marie and a great pass from Bo.

I had one holding midfield player and one attacking midfield player up front so for them to combine for that goal was perfect. Natasha Flint has only trained once in two weeks so she could only start on the bench, Mia Enderby has had an up-and-down pre-season with injuries with her calf, then the shoulder and a slight quad strain, so she only trained on the Friday and Saturday.

Mia is an exciting young talent. There’s a lot for her to learn and a lot to do but when you have that natural ability like she does, we are excited to help her develop and turn into the player we know she can be.

Everyone played their part at Emirates Stadium and it was fantastic. We defended magnificently.

We wanted to stop them playing centrally and we reduced them to shots from distance. They had 19 shots and three on target, and we had six shots and two on target, so that just shows defensively the work that we put in.

Everyone defensively – from Lawsy [Rachael Laws], the back five and midfield three – just blocked shots, blocked crosses and even though they had 19 corners I felt we defended them so well, so we were really pleased.

I also want to say a special thank you once again to our supporters, who were brilliant as always.

I loved it on Sunday how they separated the fans and we had our own section. We knew where we could go at the end of the game to celebrate with them and it was a great feeling. What a day for them and what a day for us.

On the injury front, we need to let Sophie’s broken nose settle. The specialist will see her again next week so we will know more then.

Melissa Lawley is back in full training now, Leanne Kiernan is now pain-free, and has been for two weeks, and Shanice van de Sanden is slowly but surely getting there, so we are starting to turn the corner. But realistically apart from Mel and when we get an update on Sophie, with that group of players we are probably looking at another four weeks.

I said last week that Mel could be on the bench against Everton Women and I still think that’s very likely, but we’ll see how she is this week and we might need her on the bench against Aston Villa Women on Sunday, but I don’t know yet.

We’ll have Yana and Jas back, Natasha and Mia will be available for selection as well. Whether they can play the full 90 minutes, I don’t know, so we’ll just have to see on that.

We can’t wait to get back to Prenton Park on Sunday, when we face Aston Villa in our first home game of the season (kick-off 6.45pm BST).

• Tickets for Sunday's game against Aston Villa Women are available here

Aston Villa proved what a good team they are last season. It was only us and them that beat teams that are in that top three, so Carla Ward has strengthened their team really well, in January and in this window, and I think they are genuine contenders to break into that top four, top three this year.

They have got experience, they have got goals, so they have everything in their team, and it’s going to be a completely different test for us this weekend.

We can’t wait to see all of our supporters once again this Sunday and we want to make Prenton Park a fortress once again.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter

• Get tickets for LFC Women v Everton Women at Anfield here - just £1 for U18s