Our ladies had to settle for a point on the road after a hard-fought 1–1 draw away at Burton Albion, in what was always going to be a difficult return to action following a break over the Christmas period.
We went 1–0 down in the first half after a through ball that appeared to be offside. It was an unfortunate goal to concede, and while there were clear questions over the decision, our defensive line knows it must do better in the coming weeks to ensure situations like that don’t hurt us, regardless of whether the move was offside or not.
Coming back after a three-week break made the challenge even tougher, especially against a Burton Albion side that had a really strong team out. They looked a good footballing side and while they asked us plenty of questions throughout the game they didn’t threaten our goal too much. We did struggle at times to meet the demands of the pitch, which was very, very tight. That made it difficult to get hold of the ball and create any sustained or fluid passages of play in the first half.
The second half, however, was much, much better from us. We showed great character and resilience and started to play with more confidence and intent. We made a change of formation at half-time after recognising that things weren’t quite falling for us, and that adjustment had a positive effect on our performance.
That improvement was rewarded when Dolcie Sims produced an excellent finish to bring us level. From that point on, we pushed hard for a winner and showed real belief, but it just didn’t quite fall for us on the day.
Overall, away from home against strong opposition and after a lengthy break, a point was probably a fair result. There were plenty of positives to take from the second-half performance, and we’ll look to build on that moving forward.
