'Against the elements we got a good result'

Pedro Martinez Losa was delighted with the character shown as his side came back from 2-1 down and a player down to defeat Birmingham City at Meadow Park.

The manager’s late substitutions proved pivotal, with Lisa Evans coming on to score the equaliser, while Jodie Taylor netting the winner from the penalty spot in the dying minutes.

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“I’m pleased with the character,” Losa told Arsenal.com. “Against the elements we managed to get a good result with 10 players and we managed to keep competing and tried to do the right things and that’s to the credit of the players, who never gave up.

“We have to obviously improve, but this was the first game and we were very solid during pre-season, but now when you’ve come to the real competition it’s different, so of course we want to get better but we managed to get the result and for that we can keep believing.

“I think it’s taken a little time for us to have all these brilliant characters on the bench, on the pitch and off the pitch that let us have a performance and a result like today, because if there is negativity coming in the difficult moments it’s impossible to get those results.

“The substitutes came on from the bench and changed the game, we were losing when they came into the game and we won in the end. Lisa scored the equalising goal and I think she performed fantastically, she’s a great girl, she wants to work hard and also I’m very happy for her to score.

“We have been managing Jodie to get her fit and in the best mental and physical state as possible for the future and we were very happy that she performed so well in the Euros and hopefully she can do it this season. At the moment she’s already got two goals and she could have scored a couple more, which is great news for us. I have difficult decisions to make in terms of having a lot of options and a lot of players with quality.

“It will be a very difficult game against Manchester City. I think we started well, we got the three points and on from that we always feel comfortable playing on a good pitch like Man City have. We will be prepared, they will be prepared and we played against them in pre-season, so it will probably be a very different story. I am looking forward to a great game and a performance like last season.”