Powell picked out the performances of Ellie Hack and debutant Libby Bance, and said that the latter grew in stature as the match wore on.
She said, “It was fantastic. It’s great to score from open play and have five different goalscorers. We carried over some momentum from the weekend and hopefully we can continue that into our next match this weekend.
“More importantly, some of the youngsters got on; Eliie Hack played 90 minutes, and Libby Bance played, who I thought was very good for a 16-year-old kid. It was great to see her last the full game and try to boss it in midfield.
“She’s been at the club for a while, certainly before the start of my tenure, and after watching her play for the Dual Career Academy and seeing her take part in first-team training, we felt it was a good opportunity to put her in the team in this sort of environment against a Championship side. The players around her helped, and she just grew in confidence.”
Powell made nine changes to the side that defeated Birmingham City in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League last weekend, and she maintained that there is a healthy competition for places, before looking ahead to the game against Manchester United this coming Sunday.
“It was great for Amanda to get a goal and give her some confidence going forward. As I said at the beginning of the season, we will need every player to get us over the line. Players are desperate to play, but with the injuries we have, everyone needs to play their part. Tonight was a good reflection of that.
“There is competition for places and we have a lot of injuries, but everybody is trying to stake a claim for a place in the side. The fact that there were changes didn’t disrupt us too much and it was a comfortable win. When we played London Bees in the competition last year, it was a bit of a struggle and that shows the improvements we’ve made in the last year.
“It’s a very different test and we are under no illusions of what is ahead and the problems they possess. This performance will give us some confidence going forward, and we need to make sure that we take the good points from this game and put it into practice on Sunday.”