Everton Ladies head coach Andy Spence says his side have no fear going to high-flying Chelsea when they resume their WSL 1 campaign on Sunday (12.30pm kick-off).

The Blue Girls travel to the Kingsmeadow Stadium currently ninth in the table, having lost their previous league encounter at Bristol City. But they sit just three points off Sunderland in fifth - and Spence insists his side can go into the clash with plenty of confidence against title-chasing Chelsea, with full-back Taylor Hinds - signed from Arsenal this week - in line to make her debut. 

“We can take a lot of confidence from games against Manchester City where we have competed really well," he said. "The girls are really looking forward to the game and if you are a young player with big ambitions for the future, you want to test yourself against players who are perhaps at the level you want to be at in three or four years time.

“Chelsea have really grown as a club and they have recruited some of the best players over European and world football, so they are the team who are expected to win leagues and cups. We know we aren’t at that level at that moment in terms of experience, but I know we have got a group of young players who have shown they are not afraid to go up against the teams with the bigger reputations and go and compete with them.

“We are all looking forward to it, we know we are facing one of European football’s best squads, but we are not fearful and, if anything, excited to see if we can put in another top performance. We are targeting a win, it is also about building consistent performances and getting back to those performance levels that we displayed before the break.

“We are focused on us growing as a team and getting back to the levels we have achieved and that will look after everything else, I don’t worry about the table at the moment, I worry about our performances, but I think we are doing well so far."

The game will be the Toffees’ first since the loss against Bristol two weeks ago, with an international break sandwiched in between, and Spence is confident the break will have helped his side.

“The vast majority of the players have been training with us since the Bristol game and have been putting a lot of hard work in," added the Blue Girls boss. "The players and myself were disappointed with the display we put on so there has been a lot of hard work with the girls in the past few weeks, they have been brilliant and really want to respond in the right manner. We are in a good place leading into the last couple of days before the game.

“We have had a few players away internationally, which we are pleased about for the players having that opportunity, those players have come back over the past few days and they take a lot of confidence when they go away so we want them to bring that confidence back to Everton.

“Professional football is about being really competitive, we have 19 players who all want to be playing and who are all improving, we have a really competitive squad, a squad that push each other on all the time and are making themselves better by that competitive nature.

“When you have 10 teams in a league, the table can look good, and then not so good. Into the break we were fairly comfortable with the position we were in and one game has swung it in terms of points."

You can watch the Blue Girls in action this Saturday on the BBC Red Button from 12.30pm.