McDonough: "Every player on the pitch gave 100%"

Captain Keara McDonough reflects on yesterday's game against a tough Nelson Ladies which saw us run out 3-2 winners.

"Our second league game saw us take on a strong Nelson side, who we met 4 weeks previously in a pre-season friendly, and lost 6-2.

Within minutes of kick off, we found ourselves 1-0 down, which was an incredibly frustrating start. The first half performance was not up to our usual high standard and we really struggled to get a foot in the game, so we were relieved to regroup at half time and managers Elle Kayley and Simon Woodford make some tactical changes.

It wasn’t long before we started to see the benefits of these changes, and we started to take control in midfield and create more chances in attack, which led to Kerry Reeves equalising within minutes of the second half. As the game went on the girls dug deep and battled to get us in front and it wasn't long before another goal came from Kerry.

With 15 minutes left of the game, Nelson equalised, but the girls responded brilliantly and scored almost instantly with Rosie Robinson playing an excellent through ball to Jade Elliot who slotted it home.

Towards the end, both teams were giving it everything as Nelson tried to get a goal back, but the team really held their positions up well and the defense remained solid at the back. Every player on the pitch gave 100% to ensure we kept hold of the lead and grabbed the 3 points.

Although we had a really poor first half, the way the team dug in and reacted was a credit to them, and ultimately helped us secure the win. We know we can play better and we will learn from the mistakes, and now we look forward to our next league game against Accrington Stanley".

Woodford: "I'm very proud of the team performance today"

"After a tough pre-season it was good to get a win under our belts in the the first league game against a good Langho side.

Considering it was a very hot day, the levels of determination and concentration throughout the 90 minutes were excellent. I think the game was a lot closer than the scoreline suggests, and at times we rode our luck, but we scored 3 excellent goals and protected our lead well in the second half. It was also very satisfying to see us keeping a clean sheet.

On the whole I felt we were very solid as a defensive unit and a special mention to our goalkeeper who had a very good game sweeping up behind the back four and nullifying their main threat. This allowed us to squeeze higher up the pitch and control the middle of the field.

I'm very proud of the team performance today and really happy the ladies got the win for all the hardwork they've put in during pre-season. Our challenge now is keeping this level of performance up in our next game."

Woodford: "We've now put ourselves in a great position to finish top of the group"

After a fantastic performance which saw the ladies seal their third win of the tournament against AFC Bolton, coach Simon Woodford provides his post match thoughts.

"The first half today proved to be a great test for us, and full credit needs to go to Bolton who played well and caused us problems with their offside trap. We were also guilty of not showing the standards we have set ourselves over recent weeks, and we knew we needed to work hard in the second half.

At half time the players acknowledged that the standards needed to improve and we talked about how we could exploit Boltons offside trap. The second half saw the ladies step their game up and it was very pleasing to see the players raise the standards, and implement the tactics we talked about at half time. Once we got the first goal the players never looked back, and our fitness levels shone through which caused Bolton problems and we played some excellent football throughout the second half.

I also thought the defensive unit was very good today, they protected our goal well and limited them to very few shots on goal.

We've now put ourselves in a great position to finish top of the group and I'm looking forward to our final group game next week".

Next week the ladies take on Blackburn Community Reserves, kick off 2pm, venue TBC.