LFC WomenMatt Beard: It's a big three points for us, I'm delighted
Matt Beard praised the collective spirit of his Liverpool FC Women squad after claiming a vital three points in the Barclays Women's Super League with a 2-0 win over Reading.
The Reds went into Sunday’s game at Prenton Park just one point ahead of their opponents in the table, and goals from Missy Bo Kearns and Ceri Holland secured the victory.
It was also a first win in 2023 for Beard’s charges, who now look forward to another home outing when Leicester City visit Prenton Park this coming Sunday.
Read on for the LFC Women boss’ post-match reflections on the success versus Reading…
On his verdict on the victory…
It’s a big three points for us, especially with the results on Saturday with Brighton drawing and Leicester City losing. We didn’t really speak about that with the players [going into this game], we spoke about these two home games and just focusing on Reading, getting three points - and I’m delighted we did that today.
On the importance of keeping a clean sheet...
It is pleasing. I thought defensively our shape was good and we restricted them to set plays, but they are so dangerous from them. We have conceded too many goals from crosses recently so that was pleasing to keep the clean sheet today. I said to the players after the game, the way we have trained these last two weeks since the Manchester United game, and even the players who didn’t get on the pitch, they have all had such a valuable input into this result. It just goes to show how together we are as a group and how unselfish some people are. It’s tough to pick an XI, so from one through to 25 I’m proud of everyone.
On the brilliant performance of Fuka Nagano in midfield…
Fuka coming in has helped. She is a diamond on the ball and even off the ball. She is surprisingly quick as well and she sees things that maybe other people don’t see. Fuka has settled in fantastically and we are only going to get better as a team with her.
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On how he sees his team evolving at this moment in time…
I’ve said this from day one, we are not naive and we understand where we are at this moment during this journey in the WSL. We have taken points off Reading now away and at home, we drew with Brighton and beat West Ham. So, the teams that we feel that are in and around us we have got points from.
Ultimately, when you play the top teams, and yes, we have given a good account of ourselves and yes, we are frustrated we haven’t won these games, but the gap from top to bottom is massive and it’s evident and clear to see. It has taken some of those teams three years to get into the position they are now in. Our aim was to stay in this division. We have given ourselves an unbelievable chance now with these three points. We are on 11 points now and we think 12 or 13 is going to be the magic number, so if we can get three points against Leicester on Sunday, and that certainly won't be easy, then we will always continue to work hard and finish as high up the league table as we can. It was always going to be a process and it was always going to take time for us to really fulfil our potential at this level.