Every word of Vicky Jepson’s pre-Everton press conference

Vicky Jepson spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Thursday afternoon ahead of Sunday's trip to Everton in the Women's Super League. Here's what she had to say on the following subjects.

On the latest team news…

“Jess Naz will be back in the squad, which is fantastic. She’s been working hard to get herself back fit to be in a position to come with us to the north west on Sunday, so that’s a big plus for us. Shelina [Zadorsky] is still not available but she’s been on the grass with her rehab sessions, but is still not in a position to join team training, so we’ll continue to work with Shelina to give her all the support she needs to make that transition back into team training. That’s the update in terms of the squad.”

On facing Everton next as a former Liverpool manager…

“I have a cockerel on my chest now, not a liverbird. The derby for us is Arsenal, not Everton. Those times have changed, so I haven’t brought up what Everton means to me as a club. It’s another game, we’ve got six left, we took lessons from last weekend, which was five days ago now, so we’ve been heavily into our preparations to travel up to the north west and give a good account of ourselves, taking the lessons from Saturday’s game and applying it into this weekend.”

On Everton’s season under Brian Sorensen…

“I think he’s done a fantastic job. Defensively, they don’t concede many goals, so we know that we’re going to have to be patient and try to keep working hard to sustain our attack and create moments in front of goal. We have to make sure we take them and don’t turn them down. I expect that, whilst I also know on the counter-attack they have some incredibly technicians that can dribble and drive on the ball in pockets, so we’ve got to make sure defensively we’re ready for that. We’re looking forward to getting back to playing again, having come off a game where we disappointed in the way that we turned up on Saturday.”

On Kerys Harrop’s chance to set a new record for WSL appearances on Sunday…

“She’s got some stories, that’s for sure, from her time in the women’s game, with it going from having to pay to play to now being paid to play - what a journey that is. She’s been a part of the history of the WSL from where it started from the Spring Series if you remember that, to where it is now. She’s an incredible leader in our dressing room and also sometimes can be the clown of the group; she likes to have a laugh and a joke but sometimes you need people to be jesters and lighten the mood. She has professional standards that she demands from others and herself. She’s reflective and always reflects on the things that she could do better and is coachable. She can take feedback on board on the areas she needs to improve on and would literally live or die for three points. She’s just so competitive. For her, she turns up to win, whether it’s a possession practice, a small-sided game, or whether it’s on matchday, she’s a born winner.”

On the focus for the rest of the season…

“I think it’s game by game. We want to accumulate as many points as we can. Target number one is to stay in the WSL, that has to be the thing and we’ll do that by accumulating more points along the way in these next six games that we’ve got, but we want to finish as high as we possibly can. We won’t just settle for picking up points here and there. Finishing as high as we can is always going to be our objective and all the players would say the same. Number one priority is to stay in the league and we should do with the quality players we have, as long as they continue to work hard around the moments of the game when they turn up to play on a matchday.”

On the season so far as a whole…

“We don’t really want to dwell on it because we’ve had lots of discussions internally on what we could’ve done and why we are where we are. That reflection piece will continue with the team behind the team with our MDT, the wider Club as well and the support that we need going forwards into the new season. Confidentially we discussed it with the group of players, but that’s for us to know what we need to do better and why we are where we are. What’s really important is what we do about it because we can’t affect the past. We can lie awake in bed and stress about the past if we want but that’s energy wasted. We’ve got to be looking forwards and, like I said, we were disappointed on Saturday, of course we were. I was disappointed to but we came on in Sunday, did the recovery session together, the girls did yoga, we reflected on the clips and then come Tuesday when we came back in, it was pushed to one side and we’re now focusing on the next game. That’s how I want to operate with the group. We can’t get stuck thinking about the past. We can learn from the past absolutely, but it’s about what we do going forwards, and that’s going to be the approach until the end of the season.”

On whether there is a number of points required to stay up in the WSL…

“I don’t think we can start talking like we do in the Premier League, absolutely not. Any team can take points off of anybody in the WSL and we’ve seen that already in previous years. I’m certainly not putting a points target on what we need to get. We’ve got our next six games. We’ve just crossed off the Arsenal game. Now we know it’s Everton and we’ll keep looking to tick off the games game by game and wanting to accumulate as many points as we can, but I certainly haven’t put a points figure on what I want to get. It’s game by game. Three points are at stake on Sunday and it’s up to us whether we take them or we don’t.”

On Vicky’s position as Interim Head Coach…

“At the moment, it’s game by game and I will do that to the best of my ability until told otherwise.”

On Everton’s positioning in the WSL…

“I think Everton could be in either half. At the moment they’re struggling to score goals, they have done since this side of Christmas, but do they have goalscorers? Yes, absolutely they do, and we’re well aware of that, so we can’t take that lightly. On the flip side, they don’t concede goals either, so it depends on which side of the game they’re going to perfect going forwards in terms of where they’ll sit at the end of the season. I don’t put them in a category at all.”

On Bethany England missing out on the England squad for the next international break…

“Beth is an ultra professional player and it hasn’t effected her. She’s turned up, still been professional, still been smiling, still sat with the group and ate her breakfast the same. She still worked one hundred and ten per cent on the grass. On the outside, it hasn’t effected her at all in the way that she’s turned up to Hotspur Way to train. It’s obviously disappointing to see her left out of the squad, but I know that Sarina [Weigman] has a difficult task with the amount of forwards that she has to choose from, but you don’t get to be the second-highest WSL goalscorer by luck - you get it because you earn it through clinical finishing. Since Beth’s been at our Club, she’s already our top goalscorer in such a short time, she’s proven she could do it at Chelsea, and she’s come to our Club and we’ve been in difficult circumstances and she’s still managed to score goals in a different way of playing with us. I only have to reflect on the goal she scored at Leicester - we were under a significant amount of pressure because it was a six-pointer and that could’ve been the difference between us staying up or going down, if we’d have given Leicester three points. The way the she took that single-handedly to score that outstanding goal shows that she can score in big moments when the pressure and stakes are high in any team. Would I want to see her going to the World Cup to represent our Lionesses to score in moments like that? Absolutely, and I believe that she can. Like I said, being the second highest goalscorer in the WSL speaks volumes for me, but I’m respectful and understand that Sarina has a job to do and a lot of forwards to pick from but, for me, I would not be leaving Bethany out of the England squad going into that World Cup. Beth will never stop wanting to get into that squad. She’s hungry every day when she comes into our training ground, so she’ll be respectful of the decision and work tirelessly hard to put herself in a good position. We’ve seen her score at the weekend from a penalty, but I’m sure we’ll see more goals in our next six games and hopefully she does enough to showcase that she deserves that shirt.”