Beard eyes Durham response
Liverpool Ladies' manager Matt Beard has admitted this Sunday's Continental Cup tie with Durham Women is a good opportunity to get back to winning ways.
After a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in last Sunday's WSL encounter, the Reds travel north hoping to secure a victory which would renew their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition.
Meanwhile, their opponents head into the clash bottom of the WSL 2 but the boss has stressed the importance of his side keeping their focus.
Kick-off is at 2pm BST on Sunday with the match being played at New Ferens Park.
Beard told Liverpoolfc.com: "It's a good opportunity for us to bounce back but we've got to be professional and I think the word we're really looking at is ruthless.
"We created lots of chances against Arsenal and didn't take any of them and we didn't even work the goalkeeper which for me was disappointing. But I'm confident we can get back to winning ways."
Despite last week's defeat leaving them five points behind league leaders Birmingham City in their title defence, Beard believes his side are still in the title hunt and is trying to remain positive about their prospects for the remainder of the campaign.
The Londoner revealed that he had a lengthy chat with the squad earlier this week in a bid to address mistakes he felt cost them dearly.
He said: "We went through the breakdown of the game and we showed them the clips I wasn't really happy with. We didn't get enough bodies forward and we didn't break quick enough.
"I'm sure we'll put that right and the girls trained well yesterday and they were positive after we went through the clips so I'm looking for a positive reaction on Sunday."
Whilst Beard admits the Reds don't know too much about this weekend's opposition, he feels his side should have too much strength in depth for them on the day. But he admits they've got to be respectful and maintain their professionalism in order to make sure that they come out on top.
He added: "The Continental Cup is important but the league is the priority if I'm honest. We want to progress in all the competitions that we play in.
"We set a minimum target of reaching the semi-finals in both cup competitions purely and simply because if you get to that stage, then you're 90 minutes away from the final and anything can happen on the day in a semi-final.
"We want to progress in this tournament, it's a good opportunity for us to not play in the league environment and to get that confidence back in us and score some goals."
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