Kerys: “Really pleased to get back and bag a goal!”

Returning to the side following seven months out with injury, Kerys Harrop marked her comeback with a goal and assist in typical no-nonsense fashion.

“I’m really pleased,” she said after the game. “I was thinking in the car on the way here, even just being in the team huddle and the chat at the beginning - little things like that you really miss, so I’m really pleased to get back out there, get the 90 minutes and bag a goal as well!

“I’m buzzing. You can tell from my smile, I can’t stop smiling! It was a long seven months and it’s hard because you’ve got to work your way back into the team and I was given the opportunity today and I took it. I assisted and scored a goal, so I’ve just got to keep working hard and hopefully I’ll be back in the starting line-up as much as possible.”

Harrop put us 3-0 up in the 25th minute, getting on the end of an Eveliina Summanen corner to cushion the ball into the back of the net.

“We practiced it in training, that particular corner, so as I got free at the back I kept my eye on the ball and hit it in, so as it happened I was thinking ‘Rehanne will be pleased with this’, because it was exactly what we’d practiced in training.

“Games like that, you can risk lowering your own tempo and intensity to their level, so that was a key focus for us - to keep our intensity as high as normal. Particularly in the first half, that showed, and even when the subs came on, we tried to maintain that throughout, so we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to do that and dominate the ball.”

As well as Academy duo Lenna Gunning-Williams and Ella Houghton coming on for their first-team debuts, Gracie Pearse made her first start for the Club at centre-back.

“These are the perfect games to get the youngsters some minutes,” Kerys said. “Gracie’s had a couple of chances now in the league but to actually get a full 90 for her was really good. She showed her maturity and the other youngsters - Lenna bagging a goal right at the end and Ella as well - they’ve been training with us now for a couple of weeks. It’s just nice for them to get some minutes.

“We needed that confidence boost after the Chelsea game, which was a difficult result to take. Getting that confidence back with different goalscorers is going to boost us going into crucial games now.”