Vicky Jepson on beating Man Utd: 'I'm so proud of every one of them'
Liverpool FC Women manager Vicky Jepson detailed her immense pride at seeing her side battle back from a goal down to beat Manchester United 3-1 at Prenton Park on Wednesday afternoon.
It was the perfect start for the Reds in their opening Continental Cup Group C game.
Trailing to a goal from Abbie McManus, Jepson’s side levelled before the interval when Rachel Furness converted from the penalty spot.
Rinsola Babajide then took on spot-kick responsibilities to make it 2-1 after Jess Clarke was brought down, and Furness put the tie beyond United with a superb header from a corner.
Read Jepson’s post-match assessment on an outstanding win with Liverpoolfc.com below...
On her pride about the 3-1 win…
We didn’t need any more motivation to come into this game with what happened during lockdown, and every time we step up against a WSL team we want to prove we deserve to be in the same league as them. I’m a bit emotional about how well our players did because make no mistake, United are an incredible team under Casey Stoney. You look at the quality of the substitutes they brought on and we’ve had an experience of playing against their USA stars Tobin Heath and Christen Press, plus the quality of Leah Galton and Jackie Groenen, so we did so well against a very good team, and I’m extremely proud of every single one of them.
We had to be creative with the subs that we brought on. We had our centre-back Meikayla Moore coming on into midfield for extra legs because Jade Bailey had played the full 90 minutes on turf at Coventry on Sunday. We had one eye on Leicester on Sunday because the league has to be the priority for us because we want to be back as quickly as we can, playing against that level of WSL teams. I’m just incredibly proud of the team spirit. Out of possession I thought we were incredible with our intensity to hunt for the ball back. It was great to see how calm Rachel and Rinsola were with their penalties and then to see Missy Bo Kearns, one of the rising stars from our academy, come on and get an assist makes it a very good day for the Reds and I’m extremely happy to be the manager of this team.
LFCTV GO: Watch LFC Women v Man United highlights
On the strength of character shown after going 1-0 down to a disputed goal…
I think there were good foundations built last season. We were very difficult to beat. We stepped up against the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal and took points off Chelsea. We know even if we go 1-0 down in a game we are still in it. We’ve got to be really tight then pick the right moments to counter, and that was our game plan today and we did it very well.
On another eye-catching display from Northern Ireland international Furness…
You know how inspirational she is as a leader because I actually didn’t want to take her off the pitch when we were planning to do so to manage her minutes. She does bring inspiration to the team and you can’t measure what she brings to us as a leader. It was a big moment to take a penalty when you are a goal down but Furney is an incredible leader and one I’m sure our fans are very proud of.
On the confidence the team can take into Sunday’s league game away at Leicester and beyond…
Leicester are a really good team and today’s game against United was a really good preparation for us going into Sunday. Our standards have to be really high against these top teams. It’s tough playing three games in eight days but it’s a good day for us, everybody is smiling and we’ve got to recover well now so we are ready to go again on Sunday.