Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor has praised his team’s response to their setback against Manchester United in their last Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) game.
The Cityzens were beaten by their bitter rivals in a six-goal thriller at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. Despite goals from Vivianne Miedema and January signing Rebecca Knaak, a hat-trick from Ella Toone and a first-half goal from Leah Galton resulted in a 2-4 defeat for the hosts.
The defeat saw City drop to fourth place in the standings behind United, Arsenal and Chelsea. They are now two points behind third and second place, but with 11 games played they are a worrying nine points behind league leaders Chelsea.
Despite the setback, City responded emphatically against United in the Subway Women’s League Cup during the week. They won 2-1 in the quarter-finals at Leigh Sports Village and set up a semi-final meeting with Arsenal next month.
Ahead of this weekend’s WSL away game at Aston Villa, Taylor praised his players’ reaction to the defeat and their determination to put things right just three days later.
“This team has always shown that we will fight until the end,” the manager told reporters during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “We always defend ourselves when we have suffered.
“We tend not to let it affect us. Of course it hurts, but we don’t let it affect us too much. It was a perfect game for us, we played against our rivals again after Sunday and settled a few points.”
“I think the players showed real determination in that regard, especially in the way we finished the game. We did really well.”
City have a golden opportunity to close the gap on their rivals this weekend as Arsenal and Chelsea meet at Stamford Bridge. United also face Brighton on Sunday, who are currently fifth in the table after a strong first half of the season.
Taylor stressed the importance of City getting back to winning ways in the league as they look to capitalize on potential lost points elsewhere.
“We have to do it,” he added. “We really have to fight in this next WSL game and playing against Villa in Villa is very tough. The scheduling for us wasn’t very good, the only game being played on Saturday is between us and Villa. They didn’t play during the week. We also have injury problems which are testing the squad a bit.
“I liked what I saw last night as far as the determination and the ability to fight and compete with physical players.”