Albion head coach Melissa Phillips says her players need to quickly move on from their 4-0 Women’s Super League loss to Liverpool and finish the year strongly.
Goals from Gemma Bonner and Shanice van de Sanden put the Reds ahead at the break, despite being second-best for the opening 25 minutes, before Ceri Holland and Sophie Roman Haug punished the below-par visitors in the second half.
While this heavy defeat is a big setback for Albion, especially after good performances against Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, and West Ham in recent weeks, Phillips says there are reasons to be optimistic about their future heading into the international break.
“We are disappointed with the chances we conceded in the first half, they only had two looks on goal, we had some opportunities to potentially be on the scoresheet from set pieces. I made some changes in the second half that left us a little bit too open on transition and ultimately that defined the second half,” she said.
“We are disappointed but ultimately we have had such a positive block of games and we are going to have to take things away from this. It will humble us so we come fresh into the next set of games.
“We’re disappointed to concede [the opener] from a set piece and not get one of our own because we were all over their goal in the first 20-25 minutes and goals change games. To concede the second goal so close to half time sucked the wind out of our sails. There wasn't a lack of belief at half time or that we couldn't change the game into a positive but ultimately it wasn’t our day.”
Following Sunday's defeat at Prenton Park, a host of Albion’s players will head off on international duty, before returning to WSL action at home to Leicester City on December 10, followed by Aston Villa away a week later. Phillips has called on her players to come back fighting on their return.
“This is one we have to move on from. We are disappointed that it is an international break so we can’t come together and learn from it over the next couple of weeks but we will pick ourselves up, compete, and be ready to compete and go again for the next fixtures to close out the year,” she added.