ColumnMatt Beard on derby frustration, Sophie Roman Haug faith and West Ham trip

To say we were frustrated last Sunday would be an understatement and we have to admit it was a disappointing day at Anfield for us.

If I look back on the performance, I thought we started very well, we had a perfectly good goal disallowed and after that we sort of lost control of the game for a 15- to 20-minute period.

When I say we lost control of the game, I mean the way we didn’t get up the pitch quick enough, we didn’t use the ball as well as we did against Aston Villa and we gave the opposition the opportunity to build a bit of momentum.

I’ve looked back on it and Grace Fisk was fouled in the build-up that led to the corner for their goal. We still need to defend the corner better and got punished.

I thought we dominated the game in the second half but we just lacked that composure in the final third. We snatched at shots and crosses, gave the ball away in good areas and made rash decisions.

Things like that happen. Whether that’s because we are playing at Anfield and not at Prenton Park and we were trying too hard, I’m not sure, but maybe that did have an effect on some of the decision-making.

But I can’t fault the efforts of the players in the second half. We were a little bit vulnerable in the last 15 or so minutes when we were chasing the game trying to get an equaliser and they could have scored a couple of goals. But apart from that, they didn’t have that many chances overall and it’s disappointing to lose the derby on a set-play.

We are still building relationships on the pitch and we kept going right until the end to try to get the equaliser.

The derby is completely different to any other game in the WSL. I said to the girls before the game, ‘With these games it’s whoever stays in control wins the game nine times out of 10’ and I think that was the proof of the pudding. Everton stayed in control and we didn’t for that 15- to 20-minute period and we got punished because of it.

I have to say, I was disappointed with some of the decisions out there and it did have a big impact. I wasn’t happy with the decision to disallow Missy Bo Kearns’ goal. Getting the opening goal in a game like the derby makes such a big difference. The frustrating thing is we scored a perfectly good goal and it’s clear to see that she was onside. I do think if that goal had stood we would have gone on to win the game.

I gave Sophie Roman Haug a debut and even though it was a tough game she will do well for us, I have no doubt about that.

If you look back on the game, because we started forcing the ball and turning it over like we did, the front players became a bit isolated. Sophie will be fine. She had a bad injury to her nose and her face on international duty and she had to play with a mask. If I’m being honest, the service to her could have and should have been better.

We’ve seen enough from what we’ve seen of her playing for Roma, LSK Kvinner and Norway, and what we saw in those first few weeks when she came in to us, to know she will be absolutely fine and she will score lots of goals for this football club.

On Sunday we get a chance to try to put things right again when we head to West Ham United before the international break (kick-off 3pm BST, at the Chigwell Construction Stadium).

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They changed their management team during the summer. Rehanne Skinner is a very good, methodical coach in the sense of her teams are always organised and they have an identity and a certain way of playing.

Rick Passmoor is with Rehanne and he is a fantastic coach who I have known for a long time. With Rehanne and Rick on board I think West Ham could be a surprise package this year.

From our perspective we want to go into the international break with a positive result. We’ve had a great start to the season in the sense of points-wise. I think if we could get seven or nine points going into this international break from our first four games then we would snap your hand off.

As I’ve said all along, we have to be realistic as to where we are on this journey. We made a lot of changes in the summer and also made changes in January, so we know we are going to get moments like we did last Sunday but that’s part and parcel of this learning process.

But I’ve been so impressed with how the team has gelled, how they have started and taken things on board, so it’s only going to get better. If you look at the back end of last season it took so long to find that consistency and going into the Everton game we had won six out of eight.

West Ham is going to be a tough game but we are looking forward to it and the way Rehanne plays, it’s going to be a good game for the neutrals to watch, but as always we will be setting up to try to win the game and try to get three points, so fingers crossed we can do that.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

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