Interview

Ilestedt: "We didn't come up to our standards'

Amanda Ilestedt scored a stoppage-time winner at St Mary's on Thursday night as we secured a 2-1 victory over Southampton in the Conti Cup group stage.

Our Swedish defender was delighted to score her first goal in Arsenal colours, but provided an honest assessment of our overall performance. 

"We have a lot to improve in how we played today," said Ilestedt. "We didn't really come up to our standards, but the most important thing is that we got the three points. I'm happy with the points, but I think we can improve a lot.

"I think they (Southampton) were doing pretty well in defence, they made it hard for us to find the right spaces. But that also means that you have to move a lot and I think we lacked a little bit of movement in this game. It was this kind of game. We will have to look back at it and then be better at it in the next game, but they were doing well defensively." 

Ilestedt finished by heaping praise on our supporters for once again following us in numbers, contributing to a new record attendance at St Mary's. 

"It feels like a home game every game, so that's very unique. I've never experienced anything like that before and they are here in song for like 90 minutes, so they are great and I like to play in front of that kind of crowd."