- LCFC Women beat Sunderland 5-0 at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground
- The win leaves City in third place of Group B in the Continental Tyres League Cup
- The Foxes face Brighton & Hove Albion at King Power Stadium on Sunday 15 January (3pm GMT kick-off)
- Kirk states that he couldn’t ask any more from his players on the night
Not finding an opener until the 45th minute, the Foxes showed a more ruthless style in the second half that finished with City beating Sunderland by five goals to nil.
After six weeks away from the action, Kirk was happy to see his side earn the rewards from their recent efforts in training and hopes this result will give his team the confidence throughout the rest of the season.
“It’s a good start to the year,” the manager told LCFC TV. “Including the couple of friendlies we’ve had, it’s good to see three fixtures on the bounce. I couldn’t ask for any more tonight, in tough conditions, and I thought the girls were fantastic.
“We had over 60 per cent possession in the first half, and I thought our decision were good, it was just our execution that was lacking. But we just asked the girls to keep doing the right things and they did.
“We tidied things up, the game got stretched. We expected that to happen eventually. We made some changes, kept things fresh and it was pleasing to see different goalscorers.”
Despite an impressive team display, the Scotsman pin-pointed one player who has been keen to show her talents, and what she can offer to the squad, as they look to produce a similar performance next week against Manchester City.
“Ava [Baker] is doing so well,” he continued. “Since Christmas she’s really stood out, she made good appearances in the friendlies and even though she’s a wide player, she’s looked a real threat in the number nine position.
“So that’s certainly a consideration for us going forward. She’s a real talent and that’s showed by her scoring goals at a youth level for England. She did very well tonight.
“I’ve said that we don’t want any dead games at this Club, and if we didn’t win tonight, then next week against Manchester City would’ve been exactly that.
“So, this result gives us the chance to progress out of the group stage. Any victory against City puts us in the quarter-finals and that’s what we’re striving for.
“I was really pleased that the three games (Sunderland, Liverpool, and Manchester City) were all called off because we knew we’d have the good time after Christmas to work on our preparations for them."
The extended break over the festive period has allowed the manager to bed-in his style of play, and Kirk is confident that his team are showing positive signs of development, as they see an important run of fixtures quickly approach.
“In terms of finding our flow, we wanted to be kept busy in January to allow us to transition into our new style of play, and hopefully we can take this momentum into Sunday,” the former Everton women manager explained.
“The vast majority of Chelsea’s goals came from our own mistakes, so we’re working on being more clinical when we’re out of possession and if you get the first bit right, the next couple of stages don’t matter as much.
“We’ve tried to be more efficient with our defensive work and hopefully we can continue to show that throughout the rest of the season.”