Read every word of Lee Burch’s post-match thoughts following our 2-0 win over City Lionesses yesterday afternoon.
On the result
Yeah, I’m really pleased, I thought after a long break that it might cause us some problems and we might be a bit rusty, we are obviously missing a few players today. But I thought the players started off really well, they did everything we wanted them to do, get on the front foot, get in the lead and then see the game out. So I’m really pleased
On getting ourselves ahead early
They were two very different goals, the first goal was excellent, a good bit of play, good forward play holding the ball up, cut back through to Ellie on vs one and it was a great finish from her.
The second goal was massively important, we understand that they might have mistakes in them and it is important that you pounce on them and Amelia has done that really well for the second goal as well.
On dealing with the threat of our hosts
I don’t think that Sarah did make a big save at any point, she caught things and the one header at the end that she dealt with well. We did see it out, we knew that London City would come at us, it kind of mirrored the Conti Cup game. When you get in front, they have some quality players and they came into the game and caused us problems.
But we were strong on the counter-attack and I thought we had the better chances in the second half on the counter. Courtnay went through and nearly lobbed the ‘keeper, we also had a couple of other moments. We changed it towards the end just to seal it off and the players dealt with that well. All in all really good
On dealing with illness in the squad
Lauren’s (Pickett) has pulled out this morning of the game with illness and Nikita (Whinnett) hasn’t been able to train all week. We have Taylor Oleary out, Meg Alexander out, Flo Gamby out, some big players for us missing and that shows the strength of the squad. Courtnay finds out when she gets here that she’s playing up-front, she has been prepping all week to play in a different position and she was absolutely superb.
She had everything apart from a goal, it has given me a bit of a headache, to be honest! I was really impressed with Courtnay’s play and all the other players getting forward, Amelia and Merrick supporting her. Every single player was absolutely superb, Nicola Gibson in the midfield just mopping everything up, winning headers, winning tackles and just doing all the horrible stuff, again was brilliant.
I could probably talk about all the players like that because when they had to win the 50/50s they won them today.
On whether a league win against Lionesses is a statement
Well, they are above us in the league, they are a good side. We have managed to come here and do that and we needed to do that. We haven’t been able to pick up points from teams around us enough so it is really important. The Conti Cup result was brilliant but you want three points in the league, so to mirror that performance, mirror that result was excellent.
I’m really pleased and we need to use that to kick on, we probably didn’t kick on enough, some tough fixtures didn’t help us. We now need to kick on from today’s performance.
On taking the momentum into the Lewes game
Yeah, they will be, it will be great. It’s gonna be managing themselves, their bodies because with it being the first game back I’m sure they will be feeling it. As long as we get through that period, we get a few back and maybe a few in, we’ll be ready to rumble.