The tactical changes made the difference in this real game of two halves, with Emma Harries scoring with her first touch and equalising soon after. Here's what the Reading manager, Kelly Chambers,, had to say after her side drew against Brighton and Hove Albion:
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On the result
“The whole game as a ninety, I was disappointed with the first half. We didn’t show any of the character we have compared to last week when we played Chelsea.”
“We were nowhere near aggressive or front-footed, we needed that in the first half.”
“If you watch the goals back, we spent all week saying deal with the ball, defenders be aggressive, but you look at the two goals and they are just weak, we’ve conceded two goals which are weak again.”
“I suppose the plus is that teams are not carving us open but were at our own fault now and if we carry on like that, it will end up costing us at some point, and it could’ve cost us today. I felt we had enough in the game over the whole ninety, where we could’ve taken the three points.”
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On the half-time team talk
“We had conversations at half time, that we can either sit there and take going two nil down and sulk about it or try and do something about it. We changed shape, and bringing on Emma Harries had a huge impact as well."
Just the energy, there was no aggressiveness from us, that is what we are about. We like to be front-footed, we like to be aggressive, but we didn’t show any of that as we did at Chelsea last week.”
“We needed to stand up, we had to show character, you can either walk away here today with nothing or try and stand up and show a bit about us and try to get something out of the game.”
"Fair play to the girls because we could’ve walked away with nothing today.”
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On Emma Harries's impact
“We changed shape and brought on Emma – that’s my job, that’s the coaching staff’s job, we can’t get on and play, the only way we can help the team get back into the game is to do something to try to impact and change it.”
“The girls embraced it to be fair, that came out front footed and you could tell they wanted something out of the game in the second half, but I felt that we left it forty-five minutes too late.”
“At half time compared to now, I’m happy with it [the result]. The number of set pieces we had today, we could’ve made more to walk away with the three points.”
“It would’ve been nice to have three points today, and we had the chance to do that but to be two-nil down and to take a point home I’m happy with that.”
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On their upcoming game against Leicester
“One thing we can’t do, I felt we had a few players out there in the first half who looked nervous, and we can’t afford to carry players through those games, so we need everybody to stand up and be accounted for.”
“We 100% need to make sure we cut out our mistakes and we need to be ready for that on the weekend.”
