“She’s a warrior” - Jepson on Summanen’s Villa display

Interim Head Coach Vicky Jepson was full of praise for midfielder Eveliina Summanen, who controlled periods of Sunday’s 3-3 draw with Aston Villa in the Women’s Super League, scoring twice in the process.

“Eveliina’s energy in midfield… she’s a warrior, like a midfield general,” Jepson said. “What she does out of possession, her tenacity to press and win the ball back and win duels with her aerial dominance, then to go forwards - that opportunity that Ash had in front of goal with Hannah Hampton would’ve been a penalty - but Ev’s there straight away because she’ll see things right the way through, which she did with that goal that she followed up. 

“She’s got on the scoresheet now in two consecutive games and hopefully she can continue to contribute with those goals.”

Summanen’s brace pulled us back into the game after we went 2-0 down early in the first half, and Bethany England put us ahead before Rachel Daly equalised for Villa late on.

“It’s disappointing to be in a position to come away with three points and only come away with one but, on reflection, compared to where we were against Everton, when we had six minutes of added time and ended up conceding in the last minute, today we had six minutes of extra time against Villa and managed to hold onto the point,” Jepson noted. “It was really resilient in the way the we took it to the final whistle, so I’m really pleased from that point of view.

“We were 2-0 down and ended up finishing the game 3-3. I was pleased that we were still in the game at half-time at 2-1, then I was pleased with the way we started the second half, going ahead and getting back into the game at 2-2. There are many positives. We need to work on set-pieces because they’re not good enough and we shouldn’t be conceding like that, but they’re things that we can learn and move forward. As a group, I’m really proud of the way they applied themselves until the final whistle.

“Now we’ve bolted onto our armour some grit and resilience to see games out. The subs that came on off the bench showed true spirit right until the end, energised the pitch and helped us to earn that one point against a very good Aston Villa side.

“Aston Villa always score goals and they’re a well-oiled machine. The way that we controlled the game when we didn’t have the ball and nullify the strengths that they have with the pace in wide areas, dribble drivers in central areas and the shots from range, I thought we really did well at controlling the game in open play. It’s the set-pieces that cost us, so that’s the lesson that we’ve got to take from the game. As a whole, we were disciplined out of possession in our shape that’s been consistent now for the last four games. It’s really good and I hope we continue that going forward.”