ColumnMatt Beard on Mia Enderby, Women's FA Cup quarter-final and squad update

I was absolutely delighted with the performance at Aston Villa on Sunday and we thoroughly deserved the three points.

It was a great team performance and it was another game played in tough conditions with the weather. I told the groundsman at Walsall the same I said to the one at Brighton, they deserve a lot of credit to get the games on.

I thought we played the conditions perfectly and the team performance was excellent from start to finish.

Yes, we could be disappointed with the manner of how they got their penalty, but I think the character after that showed another completely different side to us as well and it was great to see.

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I gave another opportunity to our exciting young forward Mia Enderby and Sofie Lundgaard in midfield, and I was really pleased with both of them.

I said after the game that Melissa Lawley didn’t deserve not to play, because she has done well in the games prior to that. But we pick a team on the day that we feel will win matches and we also have to take into consideration the international games.

With Ceri Holland out through suspension, Missy Bo Kearns had played two games for England in a short space of time, so Sofie got her opportunity. I was really pleased with Sofie and she has been super, super-patient.

I’ve said this time and time again, it’s tough coming into a team midway through the season because if you look at last season we were in a relegation battle. Now we are in a completely different place.

We are an improved team and a team that’s winning football matches. Sofie has settled in really well this year and she is going from strength to strength week in, week out. I was really pleased with her.

If I look back on Sofie’s performance against Everton just before Christmas in the Continental League Cup, I think that gave her that belief and she has kicked on since then.

When we looked at Aston Villa, they are quite aggressive with their high shape and they leave a lot of space in behind and spaces in the wide areas. We know we’ve got a formidable force with Sophie Roman Haug’s aerial threat, which is game-changing for us. So to have somebody like Mia running off Sophie’s flick-ons was really good.

I treat Mia like a street footballer sometimes because she just does some things with the ball where you think to yourself, ‘Where did that come from?’

With Mia’s pace and her directness and the amount of space in behind, we felt we could exploit that with her pace and I think it worked.

I was so pleased for Grace Fisk to get her first goal for the club. Fisky has been absolutely outstanding since coming in this season and one of our standout players.

She has fitted in here like she has been here forever. I know she knew a couple of the girls but it’s not easy coming into Liverpool FC and performing the way that she has performed.

Emma Koivisto scored twice for us and was excellent. It’s great that we have Lucy Parry pushing her hard for that right wing-back slot – to have that competition is the most important thing for me. When you see somebody else doing well and is hot on your heels, it makes you want to do better.

Our assistant manager Scott Rogers told me a story the other day about when our former winger Nicole Rolser was on the bench once. She told him she hoped the player that took her place was doing so well that she had to improve her training performance to get back into the team, and when she got back in she would do better than her, it would drive her on.

We’ve been doing a lot of work on different types of crosses and players arriving in the box, and it was so nice to see that come off on Sunday. Our first goal came from a set-play which Scott and Jordan [Kevan, analyst] deserve a lot of credit for. They worked on that one in training throughout the week.

I was pleased for Emma because she has just been ever-present and so consistent for us week in, week out. That first goal, what a finish that was!

We are excited and looking forward to the Adobe Women’s FA Cup quarter-final on Saturday when we host Leicester City at Prenton Park (kick-off 12pm GMT). We are also looking forward to getting back to Prenton Park.

Leicester have had a good season, Willie Kirk is a good manager and it will be a tough game. They improved the squad in January and that makes them an even bigger threat.

We are hoping we can make the home advantage count. We know we will have the fantastic support of our fans and, as always, we hope to make them proud on Saturday.

We are in good form ourselves, so we will prepare as we always do and hopefully get the job done.

On the injury front, unfortunately Taylor Hinds had a bit of a setback in training and she is now at least three weeks away from a return.

Shanice van de Sanden had an ankle issue and she just needed it to settle down. It was more the travel than anything else, so hopefully she will be back in team training later this week. Ceri Holland will serve the final game of her ban.

Finally, I would like to send mine and everyone’s congratulations to our goalkeeping coach Pottsy [Joe Potts] and his missus on the birth of their baby daughter, a beautiful new addition to the world.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

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

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