Reaction'We were worthy of it' - Matt Beard's verdict on WSL comeback at Man Utd

The Reds followed up their victory by the same scoreline at Everton Women in midweek with a determined display at Leigh Sports Village.

Responding to a third-minute Ella Toone goal, Beard’s charges levelled through an own goal and then grabbed all three points courtesy of Taylor Hinds’ effort on 68 minutes.

Read a summary of the manager’s post-match press conference below…

On his feelings about the win…

Obviously it was a tough start for us, we nearly gifted them a second [goal]. But I think the way we recovered and the way we grew into the game, I thought we were worthy of the three points. It’s great for us obviously to keep in touch with the top four, top five, so it was an important win.

On how he assesses the season overall so far and whether it could have gone any better…

Well, I think we could be in a better position points-wise. If I look at the West Ham game and obviously the Everton game, I feel we could be in a better position. But if you look at some of the performances this year, I think the main thing for us is we just need to get the consistency in week in, week out.

I go back to last week: too slow to move the ball. Whereas this week I thought we started poorly in possession but then it got better. Once we moved it quickly and broke Man United’s press, there was so much space in behind for us. And Sophie [Roman Haug] is game-changing because she never loses a header, so if they are going to stick a lot of players on her, we’ll just bypass it. I think we could have done that a little bit more today. But really pleased.

On the head injury sustained by Gemma Bonner late on…

I don’t know whether she was unconscious [when she went down], I haven’t got all the [information]. I’ve just been in to see her. She’s OK, she’s talking, she’s fine. She’s getting her lip stitched. She doesn’t remember the incident. I would have thought [she will be going to hospital].

On the positive impact of the summer signings on the squad…

Obviously we are having to leave players out of the squad, but that’s part and parcel of football. If I look at the players we’ve brought in, Mia Enderby has had a really unlucky first half of the season, especially on the last two international camps, getting injured. But we’ve got some good squad depth now and players have to perform week in, week out. It drives the standards in training and it just helps us make that next step.

If I look at the players we’re bringing off the bench today – Marie [Höbinger], Shanice van de Sanden, Leanne Kiernan – that wasn’t like that last year. We’ve got players that can affect the game. I think we got the decision right with Mel [Lawley] and Shanice today because we knew if the game became open then Shanice is game-changing with the pace and especially with Sophie so dominant in the air. I thought Mel’s performance in the first half especially was outstanding. She has come back from a real, real tough injury and a big operation, so she is still finding her feet. The squad depth we’ve got has really helped us kick on this year. As I say, I think it’s now really making sure we’re consistent within our performance level.

On the team’s improved away form so far this season…

I was saying before the Bristol City game, it’s tough to come out of the Championship back into the Super League, because we were so dominant in the Championship and then to have to shift that mindset. I don’t think we adjusted quick enough last year and then when you’re on a run that’s tough it makes it difficult, because it’s not easy to get points away from home. The other issue I had last year was that we had so many forwards out injured, we were completely reliant on Katie Stengel. If you look at what we are able to do today with the changes, we’ve got the strength in depth, we’ve got pace, we’ve got everything in that front line, we’ve got a complete balance now.

On whether the result is evidence for the players they can compete with any team in the league…

I think so. If I look at last year, beating Chelsea, we beat Man City, obviously we’ve beaten United now. Everyone kept reminding me we didn’t win an away game last year but we did it on the first day of the season at Arsenal. It’s a good day for us today, and I know on our day that we can compete and we can beat anyone, and I think we’ve proved that this year a few times already.

On the ambitions being discussed within the group…

From our end, it’s great to have targets, we are ambitious, we’re an ambitious football club. But we just take it game by game. I can’t affect what’s going to happen in three, four or five weeks’ time. I got asked about this game before the Everton game; I’m not even thinking about this one until we’d played Everton. We just take it game by game, prepare as best we can and hope it’s enough really. As long as we keep picking points up, that’s all we can do.