After a dominant display against the London Bees, VAVEL spoke to Bristol City boss Willie Kirk about the game, title ambitions and injury concerns.
Pleasing professional performance
After a commanding performance Kirk was happy to see his game-plan executed well but would have been happier with more goals.
“Apart from a fifteen-minute period in the second-half, I felt that we controlled the game from start to finish, it was a professional performance and I’m happy we kept another clean-sheet as that’s something we’ve struggled with this year," he said.
The manager went on to talk about their progression, saying; "A few weeks ago we might have gotten sloppy and seen it finish 3-1 or 3-2 but I’m happy we kept focused and Caitlin [Leach] got her clean sheet.
What we worked on in training really came to fruition – everything went to plan, it’s not often we can say that – but it all came together really well. I’m happy with the result but it could have been more, as a coach and a manager you get greedy and you always want more.”
The win took Bristol to the WSL2 summit overnight before Yeovil Town regained the top spot with a win over Durham. With the two promotion spots available and at least three teams still in contention, Kirk has his eye not just on promotion but the title,
“For promotion, we’re very much in it; as far as I’m concerned we’re title favourites. We don’t just want to nick promotion and go up second, we want to win the league this year and go up as champions and today’s performance and result really confirms our intent.”
Injury update
The match saw Frankie Brown substituted after a nasty collision in the second-half, but the return of a couple of familiar faces to the side.
“Loren Dykes is [potentially] a week away, Ellie [Willson] and Hayley [Ladd] both came off the bench tonight whilst Olivia Ferguson got her first start for a while. As for Frankie, she’s had an issue with her ankle so we’re just a little cautious about that and just wanted to get her off to protect it.
Obviously it’s a major blow to have Millie [Farrow] out, she’s due for surgery next week and that could be her season over however I always see injuries as an opportunity for someone else. There’s players desperate to get game time, working hard in training and now they’ll get those opportunities and it’s up to them to make the best of their chances.”