LFC WomenMatt Beard column: A pleasing derby display, Van de Sanden impact and West Ham preview
In his latest column, Liverpool FC Women manager Matt Beard reflects on the derby draw with Everton and previews Sunday's trip to West Ham United in the Barclays Women's Super League.
I thought we played very well in the derby at Goodison Park and I felt we were very unlucky with one or two decisions that went against us on the night.
It was a good performance from us and I was really pleased. Second half, I thought we were excellent and the way we defended as well, we nullified their threat.
Apart from Gemma Bonner’s brilliant clearance, Jess Park’s header and their goal which was a cross, I don’t really remember them creating that much to trouble us, so I was pleased with our defensive display, our attitude and application.
We were disappointed with the two decisions that we didn’t get with the penalty on Yana Daniels and Leighanne Robe’s disallowed goal. On another night, we could have won it, we definitely deserved to win it, but it’s another point on the board.
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It’s so important we keep picking points up because it was a great weekend for us results-wise with the teams below us in the WSL.
It was brilliant to see Katie Stengel back on the scoresheet and she deserved that. I’m delighted for her.
She does so much for the team. I say to her that I’d much rather her be in the box more times but her work ethic for the team is second to none, she brings a lot of players into the game.
Katie was also unlucky not to score again, it was a good block on the line and then it was a fantastic save to keep her out by Courtney Brosnan.
It was fantastic for us to be able to call on Shanice van de Sanden again – what a character she is and what a player.
We have not had Shanice available for most of this season. If you look at that run we went on before Christmas, we had Shanice coming back from injury then and obviously she got injured in the warm-up before we were due to play Chelsea.
She is a game-changer. If you look at when she came on and that first burst she made in behind, all of a sudden Everton’s defenders are dropping off because of her presence.
To have Shanice back is a massive boost for us. She is such a gifted player with great pace and a great personality as well. We are delighted she is back.
It was also great to have Jasmine Matthews available again and she came on and was excellent, and it gives me some nice selection headaches again.
Unfortunately, Melissa Lawley broke down in training again last week with a recurrence of her hip injury. It’s something we will just have to take week by week to see how it settles.
On Sunday, we make the trip to the Chigwell Construction Stadium to face West Ham in the WSL (kick-off 5pm BST), which will be our last competitive game until we host Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday April 23.
It’s going to be a good game I think. West Ham are a good team at home and it’s a difficult place to go.
We are in a good place at the moment and we will just, as always, concentrate on ourselves.
The atmosphere is good, we’ve got that belief now I think, and history tells us the points tally we had even before the Everton game is enough to stay in this division.
Leicester City have six games left and they need to win three of them and also need us not to pick up another point between now and the end of the season. So we are pretty much safe, but what we won’t do is rest on our laurels and we will make sure we will keep working.
We have got Everton and West Ham, who are just above us, in our sights, so we are winning the mini-league we thought we would be in. Now we want to try to get up to that next block, so hopefully we can put in another good performance on Sunday.
We need to keep picking points up. That’s the sign of a good team, when you are winning games or drawing games, and we have been consistently picking the points up.
After the West Ham game, we will organise a few behind-closed-doors games which gives us the opportunity to give minutes to players who need them, with hopefully the likes of Niamh Fahey and Natasha Dowie back in action.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
YNWA,
Matt
Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter
This article has been automatically translated and, while all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, some errors in translation are possible. Please refer to the original English-language version of the article for the official version.