Everton Women manager Willie Kirk writes the first of his new weekly column as he looks ahead to Sunday's WSL clash at home to Bristol City.
My opening column of the season comes as we prepare for our first home game of the WSL campaign against Bristol City on Sunday.
The match at Southport FC’s Pure Stadium gives us a chance to build on our opening-day 1-0 win at Birmingham City last weekend. That was a hard-fought and very important victory and was the first time Everton have won on the first day of a season since the Women’s Super League began in 2010.
It was key for this group of players and for the Club to put that record to bed and gave us a platform to build on going into our first home game.
Reflecting on our performance in the Midlands, we know we can play a lot better. We have to improve on our quality in possession, in terms of our movement and giving each other options on the ball. Our defensive structures will also need to improve.
In a way, though, we can take even more confidence out of the fact we didn’t get the performance we wanted, but still managed to get three points.
There were positives from the performance. The first 20 minutes of the game were excellent and the first 10 minutes for the second half were really good, too.
The message to the team now is to produce that for longer periods on Sunday and show more of the quality we know we have throughout our squad.
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SETTLING IN
We had an excellent pre-season – winning six out of our seven warm-up matches – and beating Birmingham carries on that momentum.
It’s also been a great way for our summer signings to settle in at the Club for what remains a very young Everton squad.
While we have a very experienced goalkeeper in Tinja [Korpela], the average age of our outfield players at Birmingham was 21.6.
You will always get inconsistent performances from a young team, but that we have so much potential is very exciting.
We started four of our new signings, too last weekend: Tinja, Lucy Graham, who we signed from Bristol and who is our new on-field captain, and two teenagers - Molly Pike and Esme Morgan - who both played very well.
We’ve also signed experienced international players in France midfielder Maeva Clemaron and Dutch defender Kika van Es, who last week’s game came just too early for in terms of fitness.
We have brought in players who are technically competent, who tactically know the game and are open to learning. They have all integrated very well. I’m confident they will get stronger and stronger.
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HOME SUPPORT
Last weekend was a very positive weekend for women’s football, with an upturn in attendances across the WSL.
There has been a definite feel-good factor around the women’s game since the World Cup in the summer.
Hopefully we can feel the benefit of that, too. I know our players relish playing in front of a big crowd. It has a real positive impact on them.
We hope to get as many fans cheering us on at Southport’s Pure Stadium and our move to Walton Hall Park – scheduled for next month – will hopefully provide a huge positive, too.
Relocating to the heart of Everton Football Club, so close to Goodison Park, and returning to the city will hopefully boost attendances and we want to build on the growing numbers of people watching women’s football.
If you’re an Evertonian, or even if you haven’t been to a football match before, I’d urge everyone to come to watch our team in action. I’m confident you’ll enjoy the standard of football and your support means so much to the team.
Free tickets are available to junior grassroots teams for this weekend's game against Bristol City. Click here to find out more.
FAMILIAR FACES
This weekend we welcome Tanya Oxtoby and her Bristol City team to Merseyside. I had three very enjoyable years at Bristol as manager between 2015 and 2018, and it will be great to see some familiar faces.
Bristol had a fantastic season in 2018/19, finishing sixth in the league. We know Sunday’s game will be a tough challenge for us. They have made some changes to their squad and have brought in some real quality.
We’ll need to be on it to get the three points. If we can improve on our performance from last Sunday, we’ll give ourselves a good chance of making it two victories from two. I know we’re more than capable of doing that.
