Dave Parker hopes Birmingham City’s 2-0 win over Manchester City will give the Blues the confidence to maintain their position at the top of the FA Women’s Super League 1.
In their first league fixture after the mid-season break, Birmingham were boosted by goals from Kirsty Linnett and Kerys Harrop as they extended their lead at the top over Chelsea to three points.
Highlights of Birmingham's FAWSL1 victory over Manchester City
Manager Parker said: “We weren’t quite as slick as we wanted to be, and it’s a good job it didn’t cost us although I think we had the better chances in the first half.
“[Manchester City] will always get chances but we had to limit them and we dealt with it.
“The result has given the girls loads of confidence for us to move forward on.”
Chelsea moved up to second place with victory over Everton thanks to a second-half goal from debutante Portuguese striker Ana Borges.
England star Eniola Aluko gave Chelsea the early lead before Nikita Parris pulled Everton level, but the London side's manager Emma Hayes was frustrated that it took them so long to secure victory.
“It took too long for us to finish the game off and I’m pleased with the win, but disappointed with the team in general,” she said.
“As we know with this league you have to take your chances because for a team like Everton, who are fighting at the bottom end of the table, if you leave teams in it you leave yourself vulnerable.”
Casey Stoney continued her goalscoring form, netting for Arsenal
Managerless Arsenal picked up their first league win of the campaign with a 1-0 win over Liverpool thanks to Casey Stoney’s headed goal.
Interim coach John Bayer said: “We’ve worked well at training and really hard on one or two key things, but the main thing was that the group resolved to take their performance from the Cup final into the rest of the season.”
In WSL 2, Watford manager John Salomon hailed his side’s goalscoring feats, but bemoaned the fact the result ended up being so close in his side’s 5-4 win over the London Bees, where Kate Natkiel scored a hat-trick.
Salomon said: “It's disappointing the score finished so close from our point of view because we played really well as a team.
“The players executed what we wanted of them and to score five goals away from a home is a huge positive to take from this.”
Highlights of Chelsea's WSL win at Everton
Doncaster boss Gordon Staniforth admits the Belles were disappointed with their goalless draw at Millwall. The Yorkshire side slip to two points behind pace-setters Sunderland.
“We’re renowned for creating lots of chances and we fizzed a lot across the face of goal but there was no real quality in our finishing or creativity.
“I think Millwall will take points off other teams, I thought they defended very well, the keeper was excellent and they set their stall out to make things difficult for us and they did it very well.”
Elsewhere, Oxford picked up their first league win of the season as they defeated Durham 2-1 thanks to goals from Jemma Connor-Iommi and Kayleigh Hines.
