Matt Beard: We were unlucky not to win the derby
Matt Beard was left frustrated by Liverpool FC Women’s 1-1 draw with Everton Women but believes his team took another step forward in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
Leighanne Robe saw a goal harshly disallowed early in the second half of Friday’s Barclays Women’s Super League clash, which would have put the Reds 2-1 up after Katie Stengel had equalised Gabby George’s opener before the break.
Post-match, Beard spoke to Sky Sports. Read the manager’s reaction below.
On the performance and result…
I thought we created numerous chances tonight. I think sometimes we lack that little bit of composure in the final third, maybe we have an extra touch or an extra pass, but I’m pleased with what we’ve created tonight. We’re frustrated [not to have won]. Everton have put their bodies on the line tonight and I thought [goalkeeper] Courtney Brosnan was their best player by a country mile. I think we were unlucky not to win it.
I think if you look at the disallowed goal, we work hard on set-plays as well so to have that taken away from you and the goalkeeper having a good performance tonight, it balances itself out. But for us it’s [about] the positives – we’ve come away from home, we’ve got a point [and] it’s another step in the right direction.
On Stengel’s display…
She does it week in and week out. Katie is a fantastic centre-forward, she can do everything as a forward: run in behind, hold it up. But her work ethic for the team is second to none and we are lucky to have her.
On Shanice van de Sanden’s impact off the bench…
The pace is just game-changing and I think if you look, they got a little bit deeper, they gave us a few more gaps between the lines to play and play around because teams are petrified of her pace. Just having her back in training… to see what she’s like, geeing the fans up, she is just a fantastic person but she is a hell of a player as well. This is probably only her at 60 or 70 per cent as well, she’s only trained [for] the week. She’s spent a lot of time out this season with the Achilles and then the knee [injuries], so there’s so much more to come from her and once that has happened it will maybe give Katie a bit more freedom, Yana [Daniels] a bit more freedom to get in the box, if you see the chance that she had that got deflected over in the second half. That’s what she creates for us.