ReactionMatt Beard on narrow cup loss, Bonner record and Kiernan return

The Reds boss made seven changes from last Sunday’s 2-1 win over Leicester City Women as he rotated his squad to give players vital minutes in the group-stage tie at Prenton Park.

It was a proud Wednesday night for Gemma Bonner, who became the club’s record appearance holder in the WSL era with her 135th outing.

Bonner marked the occasion with a goal, Natasha Flint also netted and there was a first LFC strike for Mia Enderby, while Leanne Kiernan came off the bench after a long absence through injury.

Read on as Beard reflected on the 90 minutes, a special moment for Bonner and the return of Kiernan, speaking to Liverpoolfc.com…

On his overall thoughts on the game…

There is a lot of positives for me to take, definitely. The key thing for me is we learned a lot tonight as well, which we can utilise just like we did in pre-season when we played some of the top sides. Players like Pazza [Lucy Parry], Natasha, Miri Taylor and Mia all got minutes in the tank against top opposition, because that is what we were up against tonight. That will help their development going forward and if I look at the first goal we conceded, obviously it was disappointing, but we responded well and had some good moments, played some good football at times and proved again that we are moving in the right direction.

On 18-year-old Enderby’s first goal for the Reds…

That was just fantastic. I was so pleased for her and to see that little smile on her face was brilliant. That goal is really now going to give her the confidence to kick on. She is having such a big impact on us right now.

On Chloe Kelly making a big difference for City in the second half after coming off the bench…

We could have got tighter on her for the first goal but we allowed her to come in and you can’t allow players of her quality that time and then space to shoot. There’s a lot of learnings we can take from this game, especially when to step in and when to hold your shape. They are good at getting the ball through the gaps but I thought we really restricted them at times.

We needed to manage the game better when we went 2-1 in front and to concede straight away after was frustrating. But as I say, there are a lot of good things from us. I said at the start of the season we wanted to do well in all of the competitions but we wanted to use this competition to keep players fit and to expose players against top sides, so when called upon they can use that experience.

On Bonner making a record-breaking 135th appearance for the club…

I was looking back the other day when Gemma Tweeted Ashley Hodson when she originally broke her record. Now Gemma has broke it back again! I’m delighted for her. I thought Gemma was outstanding. She got her goal and I’m really pleased for her, she is just a great person, a great leader and we are lucky to have her back here.

On Flint netting her third goal of the season…

Natasha is getting stronger and better every week. We know she can score goals, we see it in training every week and we are seeing it on the pitch in the games already, so I’m really pleased for her, especially after she had such a good pre-season then got an illness which knocked her back for a few weeks. We are getting her back to where she was.

On the return of Kiernan…

We said afterwards in our chat with the girls after everything that had happened out there, that was just an emotional moment for her, you could see it. I’m just delighted for her. She did well when she came on as well and looked sharp, but we are going to take our time with her. We are not going to rush her back, hopefully she will get some more minutes next week in our academy team and we will build her fitness back up and get her up and running over the next few weeks.

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