Shelley Kerr spoke after Arsenal Ladies were beaten 4-0 by Liverpool at Emirates Stadium in the opening game of the Women's Super League season on Tuesday night.
on a losing start to the season…
It wasn't a good start to the league campaign. We're bitterly disappointed. In the first half, I counted six chances we had. It just shows you that football can be cruel. We weren't clinical in front of goal tonight and Liverpool were. Unfortunately, when you play good teams and they are a wee bit more clinical than you, that can happen. We're extremely disappointed with the goals that we conceded because they could well have been avoided. I think we played right into their hands in the second half and had a spell where they scored three times in six minutes. It was always going to be an uphill battle after that.
on missing injured players…
I don't like looking back, I like to look forward. When you think that we're missing Katie Chapman from last season, Rachel Yankey and Kelly Smith, these players have about 350 caps between them, so of course you miss that experience. In saying that, we've got a talented group of players. We've already done very well this season in all the cup ties that we've played. It just wasn't our night tonight. I think we could have been here until midnight and not scored.
on Yankey's injury…
Rachel's progressing quite well. She had a scan this morning. It's a chronic problem with her hamstring so it's really a case of monitoring it on a game-to-game basis.
on Liverpool and the benefits of full-time training…
I think it's amazing what a couple of goals does to you. They looked sharper and they looked fitter but that's what happens when you play with confidence. We looked like a team that were chasing the game. For sure, the finances and the resources that have been available to Matt [Beard] and Liverpool made a massive difference. In respect, it's good for the women's game because there's more competition there. When one team does that, the rest have to follow. I think that certainly makes it much more competitive. I said when we played them in the FA Cup that they are going to be a really tough team this year.
on having a quick chance to put the result right on Saturday…
I think as a player and sometimes as a coach, you're on an island on your own. You look at the game plan but at the end of the day, the players are on the pitch and they can't wait for Saturday to come. When you've been beaten like that, and a few of the guys have probably never been beaten like that, they are really hurting and Saturday probably can't come quick enough for them.
on the fans…
I feel so disappointed that we couldn't put on a display in terms of getting a result for the crowd. They were really supportive. You could still hear them every time we were attacking. You could hear their voices trying to spur us on to get a goal back. To be fair, we probably deserved a couple of goals tonight. I don't know how many times we hit the woodwork. The crowd were fantastic tonight. We're just extremely disappointed that we've come to the Emirates, played in front of our home crowd and lost to who is arguably going to be probably our biggest rivals this year.
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