Shelley Kerr spoke to Arsenal.com after Arsenal Ladies were held to a goalless draw by Bristol Academy in the Women's Super League on Sunday afternoon. Here is a transcript of what she said:
on the performance...
We just missed a cutting edge. In the first half we dominated the game, we were streets ahead of them but it was a different story in the second half, they probably had more clear-cut chances. We're disappointed but we've still got two games in the league that we need to prepare for and that's the focus now.
on raising morale...
We need to make sure we get six points from our next two games and that's not going to be easy either. We need to try and work on things that maybe eluded us today which was our finishing when through on goal. It's something that we've done really well since the break apart from our last two games. It's been a difficult couple of games but we will work on that in training this week.
on keeping another clean sheet…
It wasn't easy for [goalkeeper] Cherie Rowlands to come in today. It's been unfortunate because Emma Byrne had an accident on Friday. It was Cherie's first bit of action with the team and she's only been at the club for a short time. I thought she coped really well but you have to change your game plan as well when you change personnel. Football is like that because you know players can get injured at any time and you need to have a squad that's able to cope with that.
on the back four…
There are no complaints there. We've done well and looked pretty solid. The downside is we've not been putting our chances away.
on whether the team worked on anything different in training after Thursday's goalless draw…
We worked on timing our runs better as well as our crossing and finishing. But sometimes you're limited in what you can do, you prepare as best as you can but we didn't get the rub of the green today, particularly in the first half.
on Houghton and Byrne's injuries…
Steph has got a knee injury and it's too early to assess at this point but we'll see how she is this week. Emma had an accident on Friday and it's a day-by-day assessment on her but she's got a full week to recover and we're quite hopeful that with the right amount of medical attention and rest that she will be available next week.
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