Vicky: “We left everything out on the pitch”

Interim Head Coach Vicky Jepson could have no complaints with the work-rate of her team, who felt hard done by not to come away from Everton with at least a point in the Women’s Super League on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m going to leave here heartbroken, as are the staff and players,” she said. “When you concede in extra-time like that… I think a point would’ve been fair with the score 1-1 at 90 minutes. 

“I’m extremely pleased with the turnaround from last time we played them at Leyton to now. That was a together performance with grit and hunger to win. In the first half we could’ve gone 2-1 up, so they’re pleasing things. 

“The way that we possessed the ball at the back and played through the thirds in the first half was good. We had to be controlling the game without the ball at times in the second half and I thought we did it so well. We literally left everything out on the pitch today, but obviously it hurts when there’s two minutes left of extra-time and we end up conceding a goal like we did.”

Eveliina Summanen’s equalising goal showed a good response to conceding early on, but it’s not a position Vicky wants us to be in so soon after kick-off.

“When you concede so early on, I was disappointed with that. We’ve got to get better at starting games and concentrating. The rotation got us confused and they got in down the side and finished early on. You look at them to see how they’re going to respond to that and show their characteristics on the pitch.

“The response from everybody in the way we got hold of the ball, shoulders back and heads high, they reset and went again and got the goal to make it 1-1 with a fantastic finish. We created chances and finished one in the first half, but could definitely do a lot more in that area. The overall praise from me today is that way that we applied ourselves being so resolute out of possession. It’s just disappointing that we couldn’t do it right the way until the final whistle.”

Next up, we have the women’s international break, before Aston Villa are the visitors at Brisbane Road in two weeks’ time.

“They’re all gutted and that’s a good thing because it means that they care,” Jepson said. “If people were smiling then they’re in the wrong dressing room. It’s okay to feel gutted but we have to address those emotions. The international break has probably come at the right time so we’ll regroup after that and focus on the last games. We can’t dwell on losses. I’m not one for giving out praise if people don’t deserve it but there are definitely lots of positives that we can take. Coming away against Everton is a tough fixture but the way we applied ourselves today had many positives, taking away the second goal Everton scored.”