Albion Women Manager Siobhan Hodgetts-Still believes her side “stepped up” to beat Hull City Ladies at the Alexander Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Baggies were two goals up just after half-time courtesy of efforts from Lucy Day and Marli Rhodes, and rode out a nervy last few minutes, which included a late Hope Knight strike to secure a 2-1 victory.
It’s a result that saw the hosts avenge a disappointing 4-1 defeat to the Tigresses in the reverse fixture, and Hodgetts-Still admits they knew it would be “tough.”
She said: “We’re really happy to get the three points today. Performance-wise, we were excellent in the first half, we moved the ball well and with purpose.
“We could’ve been a little better in terms of our decision making and the final pass, which would’ve led to a few more goalscoring opportunities. We’re really glad that Lucy (Day) got on the end of that corner, it came at a great time for us.
“We were very patient with the ball, we had some really good moments and the goalkeeper made some important saves for them. I’m happy Lucy got that goal before half-time, because it was a deserved lead.
“In the first 20 minutes of the second half, we were excellent. Marli (Rhodes) took her goal well, then at 2-0 we took our foot off the gas a little bit when really we wanted to be getting a third goal.
“We’ve spoken about managing the game better at the end there. We gave them a goal with only a few minutes to go and they pushed us to the last minutes, but I’m proud of the girls for holding on and getting the win.
“We said at training on Thursday how much of a good side Hull are. At the start of the season, they convincingly beat us, so we knew today would be tough but I thought that the girls stepped up and we dominated for large parts.
“We’re really happy to get three points on the board. We’ve got two wins on the bounce, we have to take the confidence into Wednesday’s game and we know it’s a tough game but we’re confident we can put in a performance."
Defender Ella Haughey admits her team were out for “revenge” after their last meeting with Hull, and they surely would’ve got it with their 2-1 triumph.
The 21-year-old says the Baggies “rightly deserved” their three FAWNL Northern Premier points.
She said: “We’re really relieved. We were really dominant in the first half, we started the second half well too - but the last 20 minutes were a little chaotic - we dealt with the chaos well though.
“We deserved the three points today though. Recently we’ve been scoring, that’s what we need to keep doing, if we can’t score then we can’t win the game - we’re really happy, Marli took her goal well too particularly.
“Earlier in the season, we would’ve conceded in those latter stages of the game today and dropped points. We battled well and stuck together, we just had to relax and get through.
“It was in our minds before the game (the 4-1 defeat to Hull earlier in the season). It was on my mind before the game, we needed a bit of revenge for that and today we rightly deserved it - we played much better this time around.”
