Photo courtesy of Ian Randall
London Bees manager Lee Burch, was keen to stress that the result was not the important aspect of yesterday’s 2-1 home defeat to Crawley Wasps in a pre-season friendly. The Bees found themselves 2-0 down to the National League side and despite a late goal it wasn’t enough for Burch’s side to maintain their unbeaten pre-season campaign.
The Bees’ boss was in a reflective mood following the game.
Burch said, “Pre-season is all about those tough games, that cause you problems, Crawley Wasps are a good side and they did very well this afternoon”
“It’s frustrating to concede two goals in a game, where Sarah (Quantrill) hasn’t made a save, one of them is a penalty and the other was a decent finish. We’ve created several chances in the game and forced their keeper into at least 4 or 5 very good stops. But when the other team take their chances you have to take yours”
In an end to end game, the Bees missed a hatful of chances, the manager stressed the importance of his side being ruthless in attack when the season starts.
“We can’t keep missing chances, this was discussed after Leyton Orient and we know that to win games of football we have to start taking our chances. We haven’t just missed half-chances, the keeper has done well with a couple of them, but we shouldn’t be giving her a chance. It’s disappointing that we have missed an open goal at one end and then they score almost immediately at the other.”
The major disappointment of the defeat yesterday was that the Bees had to take off players due to injury, Burch is hopeful that any knocks picked up will not be too serious.
“We have finished the game with more players limping off which is a big concern, it is something we will have to remedy quickly, that is the most frustrating aspect of today, we need to get it sorted quickly”
In more positive news the club announced some new players in the build-up to the game with the Wasps and Burch is delighted with his summer recruitment so far.
“We have signed some real top players, I have obviously known Bonnie (Horwood) and Meg (Alexander) for a while now, they have succeeded in this division as well as the top flight, they are great players to add to the club on and off the pitch”
“Amelia is a young player who I have been tracking for a little while, she has experience at Arsenal and with the England youth set up, but she is ready to play now. She has looked good in pre-season”
Attentions now turn to the visit of Tottenham Hotspur Women this Sunday, as the WSL side provide a big test for the Bees before the big FA Women’s Championship kick-off the following Sunday
“I am not going to dwell on results in pre-season, they are not important, we look at the performances and what we can do better to improve on by the start of the season. We will go away and work on what didn’t go so well today, ahead of a massive test against Tottenham next Sunday”