Albion Women head coach Siobhan Hodgetts-Still believes their 3-1 FA WNL defeat to Liverpool Feds will serve as a “lesson learned”.
The Baggies suffered three first-half blows at the Valley Stadium on Sunday afternoon, leaving them with an uphill battle in the second period.
An Ellie May penalty gave them something to fight for, albeit to little avail, but Hodgetts-Still was pleased to see her side show a contrasting performance in the second half compared to the first.
“I thought it was a game of two halves,” Hodgetts-Still said. “I thought the first half wasn't good enough by our own standards. It led to them punishing us and then getting the three goals before the break, which made it very difficult for us.
“I thought in the second half we competed individually, won our own battles and it was a different game.
“If we'd have started like that, I think it would have been a different game. That’s a lesson that we've learned and we can't let that happen again.”
Captain Hannah George switched into a left-centre-back role for the second half, which meant the Baggies could be more expansive against the visitors’ tireless press.
She said: “I think we we knew that they were going to press high. I think we were trying to work down our left-hand-side and obviously Taylor not being right-footed, wasn’t working as well.
“So we just thought we will change up and see how that went. We found that it did work slightly better.
“I think everybody knew individually that something had to change. Our mentality had to be a lot better, we needed to go out and fight. We did that, but unfortunately, we had given ourselves too much work to do.”
Substitute Ella Haughey entered the pitch at the halfway stage, which proved an opportunity to inject some further positivity into the Albion side.
She said: “Hannah went into left-centre-back and we know she has a great left foot on her. So we knew that we could get out, that's our through ball.
“I just wanted to get up the pitch as high as possible and try and create more chances. Me and Ellie came on to show a bit of passion and a bit of aggression.
“We gave a much better account of ourselves in the second 45, but we couldn't manage to claw back three goals. We're all really disappointed about that.”
Hodgetts-Still says the Baggies must use the second-half showing as a springboard for next weekend’s game against Hull City.
“What I was most happy about in the second half is that we changed our mentality and went and competed,” Hodgetts-Still said. “We’re frustrated with the first-half performance, and we can’t let that happen again.
“It's back to the pitches this week, ready to go for next week. It’s about getting back into training, putting some things right.
“Seeing the players wanting to compete and wanting to start in a starting position, that’s what it's about this week. Going into Sunday, it’s those three points, that's what we need.”
