LFC WomenMatt Beard column: Brighton win, Jas Matthews' England hopes and Leicester trip

Sunday was a good day at the office for us and I was really pleased with the girls. It was a big win, just because Brighton have had the change in manager and that in itself is tough.

We know Melissa Phillips from her time at London City Lionesses, so we knew it would be a tough game and we had an idea what to expect.

It was a good win for us because of the way we responded to going 1-0 down and I thought our second-half performance was excellent.

Highlights: Liverpool FC Women 2-1 Brighton

We had a couple of injury blows in the week leading up to the Brighton game. So with everything taken into consideration, the performance level in the second half was fantastic.

We are now four games unbeaten and I said to the players after the game that it's not easy to do that in the Barclays Women's Super League, going on runs like that.

We did that in November/December and we are doing it again now. We turn our attentions to Leicester City on Saturday and hopefully we can make that five.

Ceri Holland scored twice for us against Brighton and she has been fantastic.

I asked her to do something different for us last season when we went to a 3-4-3 formation. We had good attacking players but in midfield we felt we weren't quite at it, so we changed it to the 3-4-3 and Ceri was asked to do something slightly different.

If you look at her game in the second half of this season since Fuka Nagano came in, she has got a lot more freedom to get forward – same with Missy Bo Kearns.

Ceri has just been fantastic. She loves running – that's clear from the running map – but she is powerful, quick, strong, she can turn defence into attack at the drop of a hat.

There was a moment in the Brighton game when she had the ball tight under pressure, then she turned and the whole pitch opened up for us.

I'm delighted she is adding goals to her game this season because I know she was frustrated not to be getting them last year. But as I said, she was doing something slightly different for the team.

Shanice van de Sanden is getting fitter with each minute she plays and she did fantastically well for our equaliser.

We know what Shanice brings to the table. I know it has been a stop-start season for her and she has been frustrated, but she has worked incredibly hard to get back fit.

I said to her on Saturday, 'Don't leave anything on the pitch on Sunday' and she definitely did that. She caused them so many problems and we knew we could get at them down that side.

That's another ticked box for Shanice now because she got 45 minutes the previous week in our friendly with Tottenham and now 60 against Brighton. So from that perspective it's building those minutes, and she is game-changing for us.

Yana Daniels picked up a knock in the midweek, so I gave Natasha Dowie a start and she did well for us.

Tats is getting sharper every day. You have to realise she hasn't played a lot of football this season, so I was pleased with her performance and pleased with her work-rate. She got three shots off at goal as well.

I know what Tats brings to the table and she is going to be a nightmare for defenders for the rest of this season.

Jasmine Matthews played a great pass to create our winning goal and she also made some brilliant interceptions at the back alongside Robey [Leighanne Robe].

Jas is just consistent. To be honest with you, looking at the injuries England have at centre-back with the unfortunate injury picked up by Leah Williamson and Millie Bright struggling as well, Jas must be in with a shout.

She is left-footed, calm in possession and good in possession, reads the game really well. I'd be surprised if England aren't looking at her.

Jas has been fantastic for me. When I was at Bristol City, she got an injury that had a massive impact on the team. She is just a wonderful football player with a wand of a left foot and has great vision.

On the injury front, Gemma Bonner will be back in training this week, Leanne Kiernan continues to progress well, Carla Humphrey will be back and we will assess Yana's knee for Leicester.

If all goes well this week then we hope to have Leanne and Niamh Fahey back integrated into team training next week.

On Saturday, we head to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City (kick-off 12.30pm BST). I felt we were really unfortunate to lose to Leicester at home when we missed so many chances on the day.

We are in a good position now. Leicester have got five games left and they need to win four out of them five because of our goal difference and theirs.

Leicester need to win this game, so they are going to be the ones playing under pressure. We can go out and really concentrate on our performance and continue to develop as a team.

There is still so much more for us to do but I think we have grown into this league over the course of the year and I always knew it would take time.

We have been challenged so much tactically this season because of personnel and injuries, but we are playing with smiles on our faces and freedom. We are looking forward to Saturday.

It was absolutely fantastic to see our U21s winning the FA Women's Super League Academy League Plate final against Tottenham on Sunday. Big congratulations from me to Jennie Swarbrick, Leandra Little and the girls.

We've always had players coming through our system. Even in my time before at this club, we had the likes of Ashley Hodson, Maz Pacheco, Hannah Dale – there is a long list of players.

We've got Missy Bo in the team now, we've got Hannah Silcock and Lucy Parry, we've got Zara Shaw coming through. It's important.

It's an integral part of the club and it's important we progress players and bring our own players through. I'm delighted for them. Our U21s have had a good season and I'm really pleased.

I must also say well done to our strength and conditioning coach Colm Smith, who completed the London Marathon last Sunday and in a very reasonable time too.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter