Everton manager Willie Kirk highlighted the spread of goals across his team as one of the biggest positives from his side’s 6-0 victory at Aston Villa this afternoon.
The six goals were spread amongst four different players with Hayley Raso and Claire Emslie netting twice and Valerie Gauvin and Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah bagging a goal each.
Eight different players have now scored for Everton so far this season either in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League or Vitality Women’s FA Cup, a trend which has followed on from late last season, prior to the early curtailment of the 2019/2020 campaign.
Summarising his side’s performance against Aston Villa to FA Women’s Super League Full-Time after the match, Kirk said “I thought we started the game really well, the first two or three minutes just showed the intent that we were bringing into the game.
“It has been a tough week, three tough games either emotionally or given the level of opposition so it was important for us to start well to try and get early momentum and I thought we did that.
“Apart from a sloppy 10 or 15 minutes, we blew them away.”
Kirk opted to task both Raso and Emslie with operating in the wide positions and the pair were a real threat during the opening 45 minutes. Raso was rested for the second half while Emslie went on to add a second goal to her tally in the match. Their manager was full of praise for the deadly duo after the match and was pleased to see the goals shared across his attacking players.
The Blue Girls boss added “We have got four top wingers at the club and it is about selecting the right ones for every game.
“I thought the two that played today were excellent, they caused them real problems and it almost felt like they were two players at times because they’ve got pace, they hug the touchline and give the defenders real problems on how to deal with them.
“We were clinical at times but I just thought that the first 10-15 minutes before the first goal, we missed a few opportunities to take the lead earlier but we have got to be happy with that.
“It is another clean sheet which is important and more goals, spreading the scorers, we’ve had so many different scorers already this year and that is really important for us going forward.”
It was the ‘Class of 2020’ which certainly caught the eye at The Banks’s Stadium with Raso, Gauvin and Emslie, players who Kirk has brought in during the current calendar year, all getting their names on the scoresheet at least once and providing an assist. The trio provided a perfect reminder of the investment which has recently been ploughed into the Everton women’s team.
Manager Kirk went on to highlight the club’s successful recruitment drive by saying “We didn’t want to be relying on one player and I think we have done that with the recruitment, the recruitment has been very good and has given us real varied attacking options.
“To be fair, it is just about choosing the right options every week which is really hard because they are all pushing for game time.”
Everton are back in action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Manchester City in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup.