ReactionMatt Beard's verdict on West Ham United 1-1 Liverpool

Following the season-opening 1-1 draw at home to Leicester City, the Reds travelled to West Ham United on Sunday for Barclays Women’s Super League matchday two.

They enjoyed an ideal start as summer signing Olivia Smith produced an excellent finish in the seventh minute to put the visitors in front.

But Beard’s charges were unable to add to their advantage and West Ham found an equaliser five minutes from the end of normal time through Riko Ueki.

Read the manager’s post-match reaction at Chigwell Construction Stadium below…

On a frustrating outcome…

Two weeks on the spin. Both goals we’ve conceded in the last two weeks we’re disappointed with. We shouldn’t be conceding from a diagonal ball and a flick-on. We’ve got ourselves to blame. We’ve had chances again today and we’ve not taken them – it was exactly the same last week, not taking them. All the time it’s 1-0 the opposition have an opportunity to obviously get back into the game. After that, we’ve had two really good chances when they’ve equalised and we should have had a penalty.

• Read our match report on Sunday's draw here

On set-pieces…

We’re a threat from them, I thought we were a little bit unlucky. To be fair to West Ham, they defended them well, they’re a big side. So, fair play. We just didn’t quite get the connection that we needed.

On the reasons for making a quadruple substitution during the second half…

Fresh legs. Ceri [Holland] got a knock earlier in the game. The front two were working hard. I think the game for us was down the sides and Mia [Enderby] and Leanne [Kiernan] are really, really good at that. The other changes, Paz [Lucy Parry] has sort of not been in full training for a long time. We’ve got three games this week so there’s a lot we need to take into consideration. I just felt with Niamh [Fahey]’s experience to see the game out.

On Smith getting her first goal for the club…

She had two opportunities like that last week to shoot, where she passed it. She’s a fantastic finisher, I thought again she was excellent. She’s still finding her feet, still getting match-fit. I’m really pleased for Smithy.

On turning focus now to Manchester United in the Women’s League Cup on Wednesday…

We need to rotate, it’ll be good to get minutes into players. We’ve had a few knocks, a few still not 100 per cent fully fit. So this will give us an opportunity to get minutes into them.

• LFC Women v Man City at Anfield: Get your tickets for October 13 clash here