ColumnMatt Beard on Women's FA Cup win, selection decisions and Manchester City test

It was a good win for us at Bristol City considering the circumstances when we went down to 10 players after an hour, and the players deserve a lot of credit for their reaction to that and to get their noses in front. We can be proud of that.

If I’m being honest, it was a lacklustre performance from us. It’s hard to know what to expect because leading into the game we had utilised the two-and-a-bit weeks we had to do a bit of a mini pre-season again to work on one or two things.

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I don’t think we were at the races on Sunday but when you haven’t played for a few weeks, it is going to have a slight effect and you just need to find your feet again and find your rhythm.

Considering all those circumstances it was a good result but, as always, we can do better and we demand better of ourselves. We were a little bit frustrated with our performance as a group but the most important thing is being in the hat for the fifth round, where we’ll visit London City Lionesses.

I've said we want to do well in the cup competitions this season and we want to go as far as we can.

We have had some tough games against London City in the past and I expect this to be no different, but we will go there with confidence and want to get through to the next round.

I was delighted for Gemma Bonner to get the winner for us from a well-worked set-piece, especially when you look at what happened to her in the previous game at Manchester United.

That just shows Gemma’s character. She deserved the goal and I thought she was outstanding again in both boxes.

It was a really good delivery from Missy Bo Kearns to create the goal and she has that in her locker with deliveries from set-plays. We know what Missy Bo is all about and she will be frustrated she hasn’t played as many minutes so far this season.

We’ve got decisions to make as staff and we look at team performance and we look at training performance. We’ve got such good players this season in that midfield area and it’s great to have that headache.

Missy Bo has been patient and she has probably been one of the first players we have brought off the bench for the most part of the season, and she started in the win at Manchester United.

It’s been an up-and-down season for her but she has handled herself with the utmost professionalism and she has been great.

It was great to welcome Jasmine Matthews back into the squad after injury. I’ve also got Niamh Fahey on the bench and she has been performing fantastically well in training. So, there are a lot of selection headaches that we have got.

The good thing for me now is we didn’t have what I would class as a Liverpool-style performance on Sunday at Bristol City but what we did do was dig in and show resilience, so we showed that side of the team that we are.

Players have to perform. We had Sophie Roman Haug missing at Bristol, so if players aren’t going to perform then we’ve got some top players to come into the team instead and perform.

We will be without Ceri Holland against Manchester City because she will serve a one-game ban for the sending-off at Bristol City, so that gives somebody else a chance to come in and impress.

It has been a great season so far for us in so many aspects but we still need to keep improving and keep getting better.

On Sunday we play our first WSL game of the year when we travel to Manchester City (kick-off 2.30pm GMT at Joie Stadium).

We have always had entertaining games against City, so I don’t think that will be any different on Sunday.

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I’ve been really impressed with City this season and so far for me they have probably been one of the best teams in the WSL, if not the best.

I’m looking forward to this test for us. They are always good games and obviously there’s a bit of a local rivalry but we are hoping for a good outcome like the last time we were in Manchester when we won 2-1 at United.

If the Continental League Cup tie when we played against them at Prenton Park is anything to go by, I think we are in for a good game.

I think we have had good moments in every game we have played this season. It’s going to be an exciting game because they are a team that likes to play and we are a team that likes to press.

They have got some quality players, so we’ve just got to make sure that we know when to hold and when to go. But we are looking forward to this one.

Thank you for your continued support.

YNWA,

Matt

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

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