LFC WomenMatt Beard column: Leicester cup tie, Man City test and Ceri Holland influence

It was a frustrating result on Sunday but I felt it was a positive performance. I felt we started the game well, conceded from a set-play and then Arsenal’s second was a good goal, but it was also preventable.

I felt we responded well after going 2-0 down and if you look at what Arsenal did to Lyon in the Champions League we could have quite easily gone into our shell a little bit.

We didn’t, we kept playing, we kept creating and we really did test them and put them under pressure in the second half.

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I’ve looked back at it and we should have had a penalty for the handball and if we get that and convert it, you never know because at that point we were putting them under a lot of pressure.

This run of games we are having is tough - we knew they would be - and the four teams we have played all finished in the top five of the Barclays Women’s Super League last season, so it’s a really tough start for us being back in the WSL.

I think over the course of the games we have done well in patches and we can take a lot of confidence and positivity from how we have played overall, but we know we have got to start turning these performances into points.

One player I want to mention is Ceri Holland, who had another excellent game in midfield for us against Arsenal. She is having a fantastic season. She is versatile as well, as she plays out wide for Wales.

Ceri came back in pre-season and has been consistent, she has been brilliant in the games for us and we are really pleased with where she is.

We head to Leicester City Women on Wednesday night in the group stages of the Continental League Cup, and we want to go there and try to get another three points following our win at Sunderland.

It gives us the opportunity once again to keep everyone ticked over fitness-wise. We play Manchester City Women away in the WSL on Sunday, so I will see what we will do team-wise on Wednesday.

Leicester lost their main striker last season in Jess Sigsworth to an ACL injury and they have had a few changes in personnel during the summer.

Like everything, it does take a little bit of time, but in the WSL there are only 12 teams in it so there’s really not much room for error.

Lydia Bedford has done a great job since she went in at Leicester and kept them up last season. They have had a tough start to the season as well so hopefully we can go and get the three points because this is a competition we want to progress in.

We want to get the win so we can take confidence into Sunday’s game away at Manchester City. They had a tough start but they’ve turned that around now and that will be another tough test for us.

For us, we want to do as well as we can in this division. It’s not me saying we can’t beat these teams, because we can - and we proved that with our win against Chelsea on the opening day of the season.

If you take Sunday’s game against Arsenal, we did well. We should have taken something out of the Tottenham game with our second-half performance, so we are not a million miles away from these top teams.

We believe in ourselves, it’s just the consistency levels we need to find at this level.

We don’t have as much of the ball in this league as we did in the Championship, so we are adapting and I think we are adapting quickly.

We want to do as well as we can but I’m realistic, the players are realistic. Our targets are going to be up and down over the course of the season, but the main thing is we have that togetherness.

Once we get the round of fixtures out of the way with the teams we play in November and December, then we can look at where we are and what we need to do going forward to make sure we stay in this division.

Thank you for your continued support as always.

YNWA,

Matt

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