Liverpool and Everton Women met last night in what promised to be an entertaining Merseyside Derby, and it delivered just that.
Two first half goals from Everton's Gabby George and Liverpool's Katie Stengel saw the spoils shared with a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
The biggest moment of the game perhaps however came in the 52nd minute as the referee overturned what most have perceived to be a perfectly fine goal, for a foul on Toffee goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan.
-
On disallowed goal
When asked about the controversial disallowed Leighanne Robe goal, which ultimately would have won the derby for his side, Liverpool Women's manager Matt Beard said:
"I've just seen the disallowed goal, it shouldn't be disallowed.
"She's not impeded her, she's [Robe] stood in front of her, she's got her arms out, she's not touched her.
"Courtney's tried to get through her, but look, it's not a foul on my player and it's not a foul on the goalkeeper.
"I've just seen it on film and it 100% should have stood."
This decision has prompted many fans questioning the quality of refereeing, an issue which has plagued both the mens and womens elite leagues in England this season.
In spite of the disallowed goal, a point came as a welcome reward for Liverpool, who will also take encouragement from their performance.
"Based on the chances we created, we should've won the game, but we are pleased to put another point on the board, because we know its tough to come away and pick points up.
"It was too easy for them in the first half... so we made a little tactical tweak at half-time...
"Second Half, we stopped them playing, we did excellent in the press.
Beard also praised his sides mentality, saying it is impressive to come from behind in a derby.
"I was pleased with our response to going behind, especially in a game like this, we could've gone into our shell, but we didn't, we got our heads down, we reset, we refocussed and then obviously we got the equaliser."
The performance represented a significant improvement on the previous Merseyside Derby at Anfield earlier this season.
"[We] learned from that [the loss at Anfield], The past is the past, and I think we are in a good position now, history tells us the points we have should be enough to stay in the division.
"But we will continue we work hard to ensure mathematically that happens."
The result leaves Liverpool eighth, six points behind their city rivals after 15 games played.
Beard also talked about the growth of the Women's game, suggesting nights under the lights at Goodison will encourage young girls to get involved in the game.
"I've just seen as I walked in here, a young girls face when Missy went over to her take a photograph with her, and it means so much to them.
"But it's not just young girls, we have young boys who are coming and have these female role-models which is also extremely important."
-
On fans
On the fact the stadium was reasonably full, with over 22,000 in attendance, Beard said:
"It's fantastic and it goes to show how far the games come, and hopefully of the back of that tonight, Everton get more fans and we get more people coming to our games because it was a great advert for women's football."
On the fact Liverpool fans were sat around the ground in the home sections too, and whether he would welcome a greater rivallry, Beard said:
"We have to be careful with the word rivalry, because what we don't want to happen is to become like the mens game.
"We have young girls, we have teenagers, dads and daughters, mums and sons, families that come to our games and the last thing we want is to create an atmosphere which makes them uncomfortable.
"That's our fanbase, we have to be careful with saying rivalry, because I don't think its right.
"We have to remember who comes to our games."
