Joe Montemurro cut a frustrated figure following our 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in the Women’s FA Cup on Thursday night.
With his side unable to replicate their usual free-flowing football, they were made to pay for a disappointing opening 60 minutes.
We spoke to Montemurro after the final whistle - and here’s what he had to say:
on his emotions at the final whistle…
Disappointment, frustration. We can’t allow these teams to get on top like they did in the first half and from then we just found it hard to get back into the game.
on whether we planned to sit back…
No, we just obviously felt that they were swinging the ball around with ease and we were dropping off deeper and we couldn’t get any higher. They were pinning us in areas where they could hurt us.
on whether we missed Lia’s presence in midfield from the start…
Yeah, maybe. It’s hard to say. Lia wasn’t right to start and we’ve got a lot of games still to play, so we have to make sure we’re bringing players in at the right time.
on his frustration at conceding so soon after equalising…
We weren’t good with the ball or without the ball in the first half and we were probably lucky to get back into the game at 1-1 to be honest. We probably got what we deserved in the first half.
on whether we deserved another equaliser…
I’ll have to have a look back at the chances because we got into some areas where we could have got through on goal, but in the end they were the better team and deserved to win.
on Lisa Evans’ fitness…
We hope she’s okay. She picked up a very heavy knock against Tottenham which didn’t recover in time. She trained yesterday but it flared up again, so it just wasn’t worth risking her.
on Kim Little’s injury…
We don’t know. She felt some tightness in her hamstring and hopefully it’s nothing too dramatic and we’ll see her back on the park very, very soon.
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