Leah Williamson scored her first goal of the season on Wednesday night as we beat Millwall Lionesses 3-1 in the Continental Tyres Cup.
The England international delivered a composed performance at the heart of our defence, before heading home on the hour mark to ensure that we finished the group stage with four wins from four.
We spoke to the 21-year-old after the final whistle - and is this what she said:
on the overall performance…
Anything can happen in a cup game, so to be honest I'm really happy with the performance and I thought the young girls really rose to the physical challenge. It was never going to be easy and it was a chance for the young players to have an opportunity and because of our injuries we really needed them and they all stepped up today.
on Ruby Grant’s stunning strike...
It was Ruby's first goal. I joked with her that there must have been a bump in the pitch that helped her shot but I have to give her credit. Ruby scores in training all the time but it is usually with her head, I didn't know she had that in her locker, but I'm really happy about it.
on scoring her first goal of the season...
We had joked about it in training about the fact that apparently I'm not very good at heading so it was surprise more than anything to get that one.
on having no fixtures until 2019…
We have got a couple of more weeks training putting in the hard work, then you will get some of the players going home for Christmas so I am sure the girls with have a lovely time going back home. To be honest I am happy to see the back of 2018 after all the injuries we picked up this year and we will be back fresh in January.
on resting key players over recent weeks...
It gives us a chance to regroup. It is a shame that some of the players will not be back from injury but it is an opportunity for the younger girls to come in and prove what they are all about. We need the senior players that are coming back. They have been missed. It will be good to get a couple back. We have got the same goals we had at the start of the season and we have performed at an amazing level. We are looking to carry that on and hopefully there will be bigger results to come in 2019.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
