Reaction'Testament to our character' - Matt Beard on LFC Women 4-3 Chelsea
Matt Beard feels Liverpool FC Women’s dramatic 4-3 victory over Chelsea is perfect evidence of the character that has been built within the squad.
The Reds recovered from an early Aggie Beever-Jones goal to take a 2-1 lead in Wednesday night’s Barclays Women’s Super League contest at Prenton Park.
Beever-Jones’ second and an own goal then sandwiched Leanne Kiernan’s cool finish to leave it three apiece heading into stoppage time, during which Gemma Bonner marked her 150th LFC appearance with a headed winner.
Read manager Beard’s reaction to a memorable evening below…
On the drama of a 4-3 win over the reigning champions…
What a fantastic game of football. Not good for my heart, that’s for sure! It was a great game. We’re fighting for fourth spot, Chelsea are fighting for the title. We knew they were a little bit vulnerable after the way the last month has been for them. Really, really pleased. When you get in front and then get pegged back against a team like Chelsea, to keep going and keep scoring was a great testament to the character of the group.
On what the manner of the victory says about his team…
We spoke about it all week and even showed them clips at half-time, where, whenever we put them under pressure they couldn’t play out and were giving us the ball. When we allowed them to play we caused our own problems. We need to be a little bit more on the front foot. Even when we were getting in front and we were dropping off, we still need to do the same things. We’re just inviting pressure. But we’ve showed great character tonight and I think we deserved the three points over the course of the game.
On the Reds’ progress over the course of the season…
We’ve made massive strides. We struggled at the start of last year, we had a lot of injury problems, especially to the front end of the pitch. Mia Enderby tonight, she created so much for us; Millie [Bright] was dropping two, three or four yards and it created a lot of space for us. Mia is 18 years old and she is such a talent. We decided to go young with the recruitment and I feel the team has grown together. The exciting thing for me is the team is only going to get better.
On a special moment for Bonner, scoring the winner on her 150th appearance…
Yeah, definitely. Scott Rogers and Jordan [Kevan] deserve a lot of credit for that, they have worked hard on the set-plays and we’ve scored obviously off it and hit the areas we knew they were vulnerable at. Really pleased with that.
On the lift this result can provide ahead of hosting Manchester United on Sunday…
We know on our day we can beat anyone. We have already beaten Manchester United away, we’ve beaten Chelsea here today, we have beaten Arsenal away – so we know we can win these types of games. We just need to make sure we recover well and then we go again on Sunday.