Albion Women head coach Siobhan Hodgetts-Still says her side can ‘build’ on their 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Women’s National League North.
The Baggies fell to two goals from in-form Louanne Worsey before Holly Manders capped off a clinical display for the hosts, condemning Albion to their first defeat of 2024.
And Hodgetts-Still says despite the loss, they have a platform to build on ahead of a busy period for the side.
"I thought in the first half we defended really well,” she said.
"We made it hard for them and Forest didn’t have a lot of chances.
"Their only shot on target in the first half was the counter attack that they scored from, it was disappointing because we gave the ball away and they scored from it.
"We can take some positives from the first half, we were hard to beat, we sat back in our block well, them hitting us on the counter made it difficult.
"If you look at the chances they had, they created a lot but they were very clinical in terms of the opportunities that they had.
"Our shape was brilliant at times, particularly in the first half, in the second half we tried to get at them by changing the shape which opened up a lot of space for them.
"Sometimes the press didn’t quite work, which left gaps in our structure, they opened up and their quality showed on the counter.
"Overall, there were lots of positives to take going into next week, we have to remember the last few weeks we’ve had together as a team, we need to build on that and take it into next week’s game.”
Hodgetts-Still is due to benefit from the reintegration of some long-term absentees into her side over the coming weeks and was pleased to see forwards Delphi Cole and Jannelle Straker enter the fray from the substitutes bench against Forest.
"It was good to see Delphi back to start with, and to get her in the squad, she’s been slowly building her minutes up to return to playing, hopefully we can see some more minutes from her.
"Jannelle looked lively when she came on and she’s been injured quite a bit.
"Taylor [Reynolds] got minutes in her legs during the friendly last weekend so she's gradually getting those minutes back in and hopefully she’ll be back in the squad soon.
"Lucy Newell will also be back in next week when she returns from Man United duty next weekend.
"There were some positives to take with that in terms of getting those two players back on the pitch, the squad’s looking competitive now to pick 16 for next weekend."