Southampton manager Marieanne Spacey-Cale said that she was pleased to see her side dig in to defeat Sheffield United 1-0 at Bramall Lane this afternoon.
Ella Pusey’s ninth-minute goal was the difference between the two sides. Southampton had further chances to put the game to bed but equally, they had to survive some Sheffield United pressure to get over the line in South Yorkshire.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match, The Saints boss Spacey-Cale admitted that it had not been a classic performance from her side but she was pleased with how they carried out the ugly side of the game.
“That was a game where we had to be resilient,” Spacey-Cale said. “It wasn’t our best performance with the ball but certainly without the ball, I think we were solid for most parts of the game.
“There were a lot of chances created by Sheffield United but sometimes, you’ve just got to dig in, grab the result that you can and when the final whistle goes, thank your lucky stars and that’s what happened today.
“Yes, we are learning and we are growing up in this division without a doubt and today showed another side to us where we like to have the ball but when we haven’t, we have to dig in, be resilient and organised with how we play.”
Southampton retained their lead thanks to a couple of excellent saves from goalkeeper Kayla Rendell and Spacey-Cale went on to praise the player’s work ethic.
She said “Kayla and the Goalkeeping Union work so hard in training in midweek. With more games and clean sheets comes more confidence and belief and she portrays that to everybody else on the pitch.
“With Kayla in goal, we always have a chance of clean sheets but that makes everyone else confident in front.
“She’s a great kid, really calm and really composed and she works very hard in training to be able to put in the performances that she has in the last few weeks.”
Southampton end the weekend in third place in the Barclays Women’s Championship table but Spacey-Cale is not getting carried away at this stage in the season.
“This league is so open, you could be third place this week and then in a couple of weeks, you could be somewhere else,” The Saints boss said. “We are making sure that every game is not the pinnacle, what we gain is a step on the ladder. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t get above and beyond ourselves because we have another tough game next Sunday.
“The league table will take care of itself, we just have to make sure that we put the work and performances in.”
Southampton return to action next Sunday when Sunderland are the visitors to St Mary’s Stadium.
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