Bedford: Defeat Not What We Deserved

- LCFC Women beaten 1-0 by Everton in the WSL on Thursday night
- The Toffees scored an injury-time winner at Walton Hall Park
- Lydia Bedford gave her assessment to LCFC TV after full-time
- The team are immensely disappointed with the manner of the defeat, she says

With seconds remaining on the clock, City looked to have secured their first point of the Barclays Women’s Super League season, but Thursday evening proved how cruel football can be.

Proud of the work put in by the whole squad, Bedford was keen to look at the positive aspects of the display, which saw the visitors dominate parts of the game and put Everton on the back foot.

Speaking to LCFC TV in the aftermath of the game, the manager commented: “We’re obviously really disappointed to concede a goal with seconds to go in the game and I think tonight our players put out a professional, resilient performance from the word go.

“I actually don’t think we started at our best, but within 15 minutes we rectified that on the pitch and our pressure put Everton into real trouble at times and we regained the ball in some dangerous areas.

“I think we made appropriate changes throughout the game. We tweaked the shape to make sure that we could get the point, which was the most important thing, but a set play in the final moments and an individual error means we lost the game, so it’s difficult to take.

“I think we’ve got to focus on the positives from tonight because if you put out a performance like that against Man Utd or Man City, then you probably take something from those games as well. After the international break, we’ll be back raring to go.”

Beaten 1-0 by the Toffees courtesy of an injury-time free-kick from Hanna Bennison, which has since been credited as a Kirstie Levell own goal, the Foxes have narrowly lost their opening three WSL games, twice by a single goal margin.

“They’ve all been difficult in different ways,” Bedford explained. “We’ve been competitive in all of them. I think this one hurts more because you seem so close in the final seconds and because our squad did enough to get the point.

“There was tremendous work rate, front to back. Every player that came on the pitch put in a shift, whether they were on for five minutes or 45 minutes or 90 minutes and I think that’s what makes me so proud with them as a group.

“Despite all of the results that we’ve had so far, and where they sit in the league, they don’t play like a team sat near the bottom of the league, they play like a team that is willing to roll their sleeves up and compete with anyone on their given day.

“I think they’ve shown that in the first three games and whilst it’s hard not to look at where they sit right now, if they continue that and they grow across the season, then I’m still really confident that they’ll take the points that they deserve at the right moment.”