Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor says that the club still believe that they can win the Barclays Women’s Super League title this season.
The Cityzens notched a fifth consecutive league victory with a gritty 2-1 win against Everton at Walton Hall Park this afternoon.
Many had ruled out Manchester City’s title chances after they lost their opening two matches of the new season against Aston Villa and Chelsea but Taylor’s side have responded and have gone from strength-to-strength.
Despite their sticky start, The Cityzens are eight points better off than they were at the same point last season and head coach Taylor says that the club still believe that a title challenge is on.
“We believe we can still win it,” Taylor said when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time. “We just want to tick-off the games one-by-one. We tend to not look too far ahead of ourselves and we just concentrate on the next game against Sunderland and then Brighton at home.
“We try to keep the focus on the next game, that’s difficult sometimes. Having spent more time with the players, you can see the rhythm that we are gaining, the communication is improving and the players are understanding the style that we want to bring.”
Reflecting on his team’s performance against Everton, Taylor said that he was pleased with the first half showing but he still wants his side to be more clinical in front of goal.
“It was a game of two halves,” he said. “I think it was a really good performance from us in the first half, especially coming off the back of an international break because you are never sure how much rhythm you are going to see. Against a really aggressive Everton press, we handled it really well, we mixed our game up and that allowed us to get through a lot.
“I was really disappointed with the goal that we conceded, I thought that the ref was a little bit harsh with a couple of decisions down in that far corner but it happens and it was a good test of character for us going in at half-time at 1-1 after playing so well.
“We just needed to persist with that and I think in the second half, we just went a little bit away from that patience of what we do, trying to rush to get to goal a bit. We still had good chances, we had one which came back off the bar….someone said that we had 25 attempts on goal today (converting two) but we have got to improve on that for sure. There is plenty to analyse from that second half but I am really pleased with how the players managed the game.”
Manchester City return to action next Sunday when they face second tier club Sunderland at The Academy Stadium in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup.
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