Liverpool Women draw Merseyside Derby

The Reds battled to a hard-fought goalless draw with Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday, moving Liverpool into fourth place in the WSL table.

Matt Beard's LFC Women earned a valuable and hard-fought point in the latest Merseyside Derby, moving the Reds up to fourth in the table, and boosting their chances of European qualification next season.

In a game full of passion and determination, but short on chances, Everton came closest to winning all three points, when Hanna Bennison thumped a shot against the crossbar midway through the second half.  Liverpool then threatened to steal the points in the final few minutes of added time, as midfielder Ceri Holland seized on a loose ball in midfield, before driving into the Everton box, only to see her goalbound shot bundled behind by the keeper and defenders.

It was the last meaningful action in the game, as both teams had to settle for a draw and a share of the points.

And it could prove a very valuable point, as Liverpool moved above Manchester United in the table, and into the European places.

Speaking after the match, Manager Matt Beard admitted that Liverpool hadn't been at their best,

"It didn't feel like a derby, to be honest with you. The pitch was heavy, the grass was long, so I think it slowed a lot of the play down for both teams. I felt we were comfortable [in the] first half. We need to be better in the final-third moments to convert the chances. Everton hasn't won a game when they've gone behind, so we knew if we got the first goal we could maybe be comfortable."

"I was really disappointed with the second half, I'm not going to lie. Too many turnovers, too many opportunities we were gifting them. In the end, it's important we saw it out. But we could have nicked it at the end with that opportunity with Ceri [Holland]. It's been a bit of a funny afternoon but it's another point on the board, it secures fourth in the short term for us. It would have been nice to have got the win but if you can't win it, you've got to make sure you walk away with something."

Matt Beard focuses on the positives

"When we sat down in the summer and we looked at where we needed to improve, I think we've improved in all areas statistically. The key thing was to make sure that we started well. If you look at the first game of the season, it really gave us that platform to really kick off. We followed that up with a good win against Aston Villa. It's like anything in football, when you're winning games and things are going well, you've got that spring in your step."

"The one thing I've been really, really pleased with this season is when we have had a negative result or a negative moment, how we've bounced back and responded. I think that's a sign of the group mentality in the sense of, 'Look, we've had a bad moment, we're not going to let it affect us and we re-focus and go again.' I think that's probably been the thing I've been most pleased with. Especially with the recruitment, we decided to go young, so we can grow this team. I think it's an exciting team, especially for the future."

Up Next:

Liverpool welcome title-chasing Manchester City to Prenton Park next Saturday.  Kick-off is 12.30 GMT

Liverpool Team:

Starting XI: Laws, Parry (Lawley, 75), Fisk, Fahey, Clark, Matthews (Daniels, 64), Nagano, Holland, Kearns (Höbinger, 59), Kiernan (Enderby, 59), Roman H.

Unused substitutes: Micah, Van de Sanden, Bonner.

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