ReactionMatt Beard assesses Man City defeat, top-four target and more

The Reds made a positive start to the Barclays Women’s Super League clash at Prenton Park, but three goals in eight minutes around the midway point of the first half – from Lauren Hemp, Jess Park and Khadija Shaw – gave the visitors control.

Shaw’s second of the afternoon soon after the break stretched the advantage, before a late rally from the hosts saw Taylor Hinds’ brilliant long-range strike go in off goalkeeper Khiara Keating.

Read on for a summary of Beard’s post-match verdict…

On City’s three goals within 10 minutes during the first half being the key spell of the game…

Of course it was. If you look how well we started. We concede, in my opinion, a sloppy goal – I think we can deal with that. Then we just don’t recover from that moment. We start becoming a little bit hesitant, stop doing what was working well for us in that first 15-minute period. And we got punished; all three goals are preventable from our perspective, rash decisions. It’s frustrating because we’ve had good chances ourselves today. The toughest thing for me is they haven’t had to work hard for the goals, and that’s the most disappointing thing for me.

On whether there is a difference in quality between the teams that counted…

We had a lot of players missing today. I definitely think we missed Niamh Fahey’s leadership today. I think Bunny Shaw was given a little bit maybe too much respect, I don’t know. But at the end of the day, that’s what we have squads for. You can’t legislate for the injuries we’ve had over the last three weeks, it has been super-frustrating on that front. It was great to get Taylor back, I thought it was a fantastic goal. We’ve had some good moments today but been punished for the negative ones.

On still aiming for a top-four finish this season…

Yeah, of course it is [still the target]. We finished seventh last year – we wanted to improve on that and we have already done that so far this year. Chelsea and Man City are leagues above everyone else in the division, leagues above. You’ve just got to make sure you [don’t] switch off in those moments. We’ve made great progress.

On the impact of Mia Enderby off the bench in the second half…

Mia is a fantastic talent, a fantastic player. You could see them dropping off, you can see the fear that they’ve got. I guess it was that goal [when the sides met in the Continental League Cup earlier in the season].

On giving a senior debut to academy midfielder Mia Leath late on…

Mia has done really, really well in training, she really has. She deserved that opportunity today.