Kennedy’s remedy for Cup exit

Alanna Kennedy looked beyond the disappointment of Saturday’s late collapse against Arsenal in the Women’s FA Cup, insisting: “We’ll just continue to grow.”

The Australian international produced a hard-working performance alongside Chloe Peplow in central midfield, breaking up the Gunners’ play and helping to push us forward in the delayed 2019/20 quarter-final tie at Meadow Park.

Unfortunately, having held our experienced hosts for over 70 minutes, Jordan Nobbs pounced on a mistake at the back to fire her side in front, with Lisa Evans rattling in a late hat-trick to make for an unflattering 4-0 final scoreline.

In the wake of what was always going to be a challenging game against the record 14-time winners of the competition, the impressive Alanna was encouraged by aspects of our performance and believes there’s reason for optimism as we return to Barclays FA Women’s Super League duties at Manchester City this weekend.

“We did well in the first half to be patient in our block and going forward we created a few chances,” she reflected. “At the end there were a couple of individual errors that we can work on, they’re easily fixed, but as a team and as a unit I thought we played well and I don’t think the scoreline was a reflection of the game at all. It was a disappointing time to concede the first goal and the floodgates sort of opened, but I don’t think it was a reflection of the way we played and I’m really proud of the effort of the team.

“It’s the philosophy of our club and our team – it’s all or nothing and we’ll fight to the end. That was the mentality – we were trying to push numbers forward, obviously that can sometimes leave you exposed at the back but you’ve got to fight for games like this and we’ll take it on the chin. We’ve got a lot to work on but there are definitely a lot of positives to take out of it too.”

Alanna provided a combative edge in a congested central midfield area, serving as a useful shield in front of the impressive centre-back pairing of Orlando Pride team-mate Shelina Zadorsky and Kerys Harrop.

And she relished the battle.

“We grew into the game – a little bit more confidence came as the game went on,” said the 25-year-old. “Coming up against three good players in Arsenal’s midfield, they like to pop the ball around and keep it moving, but we have the same quality in our midfield as well. Both Pep and I, once we get in the game, we’re good on the ball, Kit (Graham) is a crafty player and so the combination between the three of us… spending more time together is great. Obviously we haven’t spent a lot of time playing together yet but I think we’ll just continue to grow from here.”