Everton Women's manager Willie Kirk previews Sunday's Continental Cup game, discusses his team's impressive defensive record, and hails the summer signing who netted her first senior goal in last weekend's win over Brighton...

We head into Sunday’s Continental Cup match against Man United on the back of an excellent 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend.

The display as a whole was a huge collective effort. I was very proud of all the players.

We looked comfortable throughout.

We have not conceded from open play during August, September and October, which is massive for us.

To get our defensive organisation and structures right for three months is a huge compliment to the players.

When there are any small lapses, the players have produced some brilliant emergency defending – putting their bodies on the line.

That record won’t continue forever but we’re grasping onto that now and we want to continue that for as long as possible.

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We weren’t happy to concede from three set-piece goals in our previous WSL game at Reading and we spent quite a lot of time working on that.

We threw the players a few curveballs in preparation for Brighton, but it paid off for that match. You can’t say we’ve cracked it after one game, though.

We’ll continue to work hard, and we want to turn dead-ball situations into a positive for us.

Magnificent Morgan

Esme Morgan scored her first senior goal in that win over Brighton and you could see from the celebrations what it meant to the whole team.

She is great person and a very popular player. She joined us from Manchester City on loan over the summer and is a coach’s dream.

She wants to learn, she asks questions, she wants challenges… she is a great player to have around.

Everybody celebrated her goal together and, as well as being thrilled for Esme, I think we were all so happy because we scored from a corner.

We had a bit of criticism in defending set-pieces. But I was delighted because our coaching staff, Neil Moore and Chris Roberts, work so hard on them. It’s a big pat on the back for them.

Ready For United

Sunday’s game against Manchester United is a very important one for us against a good side.

Of course, I know a lot about United given I was there as assistant manager before joining Everton last December.

The United manager, Casey Stoney, has got very good unity and togetherness there. Having worked with the players, I can see how well they have developed. United also added a lot of quality during the summer.

It will be a tough test for us, but we beat them in pre-season. I thought we played very well on the day and were the better team.

We are desperate to qualify out of our Continental Cup group. We’ve been drawn in toughest group in the competition and we lost our opening game against Birmingham City.

We’ll be aiming to win – and with the belief we’ve got – we’ll be expecting to win.


Tickets for Everton Women's Merseyside derby at Anfield on Sunday 17 November are now on sale.

The Blues have been given an allocation of 2,384 for the game - the first women's derby to be played at the stadium.

The fixture coincides with Women's Football Weekend, which has been scheduled to take placed during the next men's international break. The event will become an annual attraction and seek to capitalise on the growing popularity of the women's game.

Tickets can be purchased online, over the phone on 0151 556 1878 or in person at the Goodison Road ticket office.