LFC WomenMatt Beard column: Hammers win, City cup tie and 2022 finale

It was an excellent display from us against West Ham United and I think it had a little bit of everything.

We started really well and obviously the early goal helps. I thought we dominated the first half, with and without the ball, and it was a challenging game.

I knew West Ham would play a 4-3-3 and then change to a 5-3-2 and they ended up flipping between that three times during the game, so I was pleased with the way we responded to those situations.

More importantly, I think our dominance in the first half was a little bit like the first half at Reading really, because we could have been completely out of sight with the chances we had, and 2-0 is always a vulnerable scoreline.

You always expect a reaction from the opposition for the second half, but I felt we dealt with everything that they threw at us through the course of the game, and there were some fantastic individual performances as well as the team performance.

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Ceri Holland was fantastic and her game has come on so much – she deserved to get her goal and it gave us such a great start.

I just think everything has fallen into place with Ceri with her game understanding. She has had a fantastic international campaign with Wales where she has also played at full-back and on the wing.

Ceri deserved the Player of the Match award and I’m really pleased. She is just going to go from strength to strength.

Katie Stengel scored her seventh goal of the season and we know what a great finisher she is, she can score all types of different goals. Her work ethic and her work-rate for the team is absolutely superb. She is a fantastic player.

It was a special day for our captain Niamh Fahey, who made her 100th appearance for the club. Niamh is Liverpool through and through and I was absolutely delighted for her, she is a wonderful person.

It’s not an easy thing to do to make 100 appearances for one club in women’s football because of the amount of teams in the division. She has had a fantastic year, with Ireland as well, and I guess this tops it off.

On Wednesday night we face Manchester City in the Continental League Cup in a game that will be live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO, and it would be absolutely brilliant if we could get four straight wins.

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It’s going to be an interesting game against a very strong team but we played very well in the WSL there recently and were unlucky to lose the game 2-1.

As we have done so far in this competition, it gives me the opportunity to give the players a start who haven’t had as many minutes of late. We did the same last season and it worked well for us because it kept everyone fit and healthy and obviously match-fit.

Manchester City are on a good run and we know the quality they have. They play Manchester United in the derby on Sunday, so I’m sure with that in mind they will probably be in the same mindset as us of rotating and keeping everyone fit, so it makes for an interesting game.

I just feel with the form we are in and the atmosphere in the camp we are finally starting to believe and get that confidence back, that mojo, I guess, that we had last season. We are looking forward to it, we want to keep that momentum going and carry on with the form that we are in.

Obviously, it’s only the top team in the group that are guaranteed to go up, plus the best runners-up from all of the groups, so it’s a tough qualification.

I think Everton and Aston Villa realistically are probably the biggest threats to us and Manchester City in terms of that second spot.

We will then turn our attentions to our final game of 2022 when we host Leicester City on Sunday in the WSL at Prenton Park.

I know Leicester suffered a heavy loss to Chelsea but the thing is, when you have a defeat like that you want to put it right. Leicester play on Thursday night in the cup when they travel to Sunderland and then they come to us on Sunday.

Willie Kirk has only been in the job a few weeks and if I look back at their recent game with West Ham, I didn’t feel they deserved to lose it.

As I have always said, coming back into the WSL was always going to be a bit of a transition for us and it was always going to take a little bit of time.

If I look at the balance of the nine league games we’ve played so far, we have won two and drawn two, won three Continental Cup games, so the way we’ve performed in the first half of this season I think has been OK.

We knew there were going to be ups and downs but on the most part we’ve had positive performances and got some positive results.

We were never going to be judged on those first five or six games we had and I said it was going to be Christmas before we looked at where we were at.

We’ve just got to make sure we keep picking points up, whether that is just one or the three, and just concentrate on ourselves.

I’ve said this all along in that if we keep playing the way we are, I knew with the chances we’ve been creating we’d start converting them as we’ve got too much talent at the top end of the pitch.

We’ve got Katie Stengel, Melissa Lawley, Shanice van de Sanden, Ceri, Furney [Rachel Furness], loads of goals in the team and I would add Missy Bo Kearns into that mix as well.

I was always confident it would turn in our favour but we’ve just to stay grounded, keep focused and we’ve got another big week ahead.

On the injury front, Leanne Kiernan continues to make positive steps in her recovery from her ankle injury. We are not expecting to see her back until February and that has always been the timeframe for her.

She is working hard in the gym, she is out of the protective boot, which she is really happy about. Obviously it was a nasty injury so it is a long one but she is doing really well in rehabilitation, she has been really professional, as I know sometimes it can be frustrating.

Leanne is still with the group supporting her teammates and you saw that lovely picture with Ceri after the game on Sunday. Leanne is on track for a February return. We’ll see if it’s any sooner but that is the plan at the moment.

Our goalkeeper Rylee Foster will come back with us to continue her rehabilitation in the New Year and that will be fantastic to have her in and around us.

It’s still a long road ahead for Rylee, she won’t be training, but it will just be great to have her with the group on a regular basis again.

Thank you for your continued support as always.

YNWA,

Matt

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

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