Interviews

Connolly: We earned our luck

Midfielder says Albion need to build on brilliant win over Chelsea.

By Bruce Talbot • 08 February 2021

By Kyle Hemsley
Megan Connolly scored directly from a corner to give Albion the win over Chelsea.

Match-winner Megan Connolly was happy to enjoy some good fortune after helping Albion to the best victory in their Women's Super League history.

The 23-year-old midfielder scored direct from a corner to seal a 2-1 victory over the leaders Chelsea - their first defeat in 34 games - having earlier set up Aileen Whelan for Albion's first from another corner.

“If you ask me to do that again, I'm not sure I could but somebody somewhere wanted the ball to go in and I'm delighted for everyone,” Connolly said. “The wind took it in but if you're going to beat Chelsea away you’re going to need that little bit of luck and I think we earned it.”

Connolly revealed that the squad had met in the wake of a run of five defeats in six games to re-set and get back to basics.

“Our performances haven't been what we would expect from ourselves. We were training one way and then playing another and losing 3-0 to Bristol City last week was an eyeopener for everyone, we realised we're in a fight.

“It was a really poor performance, it felt like something didn't add up. This week we looked at ourselves, came together as a team and said what we need to do better. Once we got back into training there were no shortcuts taken, everyone was on it.

“We weren't expected to beat Chelsea. Deep down you want to get something, but realistically you look at their starting XI and bench and know you're in for a tough 90 minutes.

“But when we perform to the levels we're capable of we can get a good result from any game. We dug deep and we were disciplined. That was a big change from the previous two games where we were too easy to break down. It's a great result but we have to build on it. We've set a standard for ourselves and we have to maintain that now, starting at home to West Ham on Wednesday.”