Albion Women head coach Siobhan Hodgetts-Still believes her side "deserved more" from Friday night’s 2-0 Black Country derby defeat to Wolves at Molineux.
The Baggies created plenty of opportunities but were ultimately undone by two clinical finishes from the hosts.
Despite the setback, Hodgetts-Still was quick to highlight her team's promising display when speaking after full-time.
She said: “We’re deflated now. I think we deserved more out of the game and the girls did really well throughout the 90 minutes.
“I thought we competed really well. I thought Wolves used the ball better, but we created chances on the counter. I think it was just the fine margins where Wolves were just better in the box at both ends really.
“In the second half we created three or four chances and didn't finish and Wolves came up the other end and scored a set-piece, which we probably should be doing better at.”
The two Wolves strikes came either side of the half-time whistle and both at ideal points for the hosts as Albion began to gain momentum, a crucial factor in their defeat, according to Hodgetts-Still.
She said: “In the first half we were excellent and defended brilliantly it was just a couple of clinical moments on the counter. For them to go and score on the counter, just killed our confidence a little bit really.
“I tried to get them to believe because I thought we had a really good first half. Defensively, it was just a couple of moments from the Wolves attack that ended up changing the game, but overall we were fairly solid with it.
“The two goals mattered and they finished their chances. That's football, but I’m proud of the girls for their performance. We’re now back to the drawing board.
“I think it's just about being clinical in and around the penalty box. Some of the balls and through balls that we played were excellent. I think defensively we've been brilliant for the last six-to-eight weeks and we've had some really good counter-attacking moments.
“We’ve got a great group of players and there's no doubt at all that they'll bounce back. We'll get back into training next week.
“The girls have had a great attitude over the last few weeks, so it's back to the drawing board and we go again.”
Captain Hannah George insists there were plenty of positives to take from their performance and has confidence they’ll react in positive fashion next time out.
“We’re gutted, that’s an understatement really. We can take plenty of positives from the game, we created plenty. We just didn’t take our chances.
“They had a few chances and took two of theirs. We can definitely take some positives from there.
“Defensively our shape was very good. We kept their chances to a minimum and battled well to do that.
“We can be better in both boxes. Just having that confidence in front of goal to put the ball and those chances away.
“It’s was a great experience to play at a stadium, especially with a young squad. It’s been difficult because some of them might not have experienced that sort of crowd before.
“We can certainly can push on towards the next occasion and we’ll learn from this. I’ve had trips to different grounds which have been great and they help you move forwards.
“Being in a derby occasion can be a challenge but we’ll take our positives from this.
“We’re positive and we’re ready to end the year on a high. We’ve got to take the performance and fine tune it.
“We’ll take the positive bits into Sunday against Fylde. We’ll work hard and we’re looking forward to reacting positively.”
