Albion Women Manager Siobhan Hodgetts-Still admits “the better team won” as they were defeated by Burnley at Turf Moor on Sunday afternoon.
The Baggies were beaten 3-0 as they visited the league leaders in Lancashire, despite some positive moments in their FAWNL Northern Premier encounter.
While conceding her side were second-best against the Clarets, Hodgetts-Still maintains they can build “momentum” as they reach the final stages of the 2025/26 campaign.
She said: “We’re disappointed not to get anything from the game. We defended well for large parts.
“There are definitely a few moments that we switched off. The better team won on the day though, Burnley moved the ball well and took their chances to win.
“We moved the ball and used the ball better in the second half. We had a great chance at 1-0, if that goes in and the score goes to 1-1 - it looks like a different game.
“We hope we can move on quickly from this and look ahead to Stoke City next week. We soaked up the pressure really well, and we defended excellently, we were compact and we held our shape.
“We need to be more clinical to ensure we stay in games and give us the chance to win them in the process. It’s something we need to look at as a group and work.
“There’s still a lot of positives to take, we said that at the end. Our defending shape was excellent and we moved the ball quickly, with purpose too.
“We played some really good football too at times, we just didn’t go and do that enough throughout the game. To come here and play against top of the league, against a team that haven’t lost this season - we’ve got to take the positives from the game and there’s a big game against Stoke next weekend.
“We’ve got a lot of league games coming up now. Stoke is the first on Sunday, we want to continue with the win we got against Rugby and the momentum from that, we want to take that into our next few league games.”
Midfielder Seren Watkins wore the captain’s armband in Sunday’s defeat, and despite conceding a “disappointing” three goals, being a “leader" comes naturally to the tenacious 22-year-old.
She said: “We wanted to get something out of the game. To concede three goals is disappointing, but we do have positives to take from our performances.
“It was a tough battle for us all, we kept it well, we stayed connected for the majority of the game but there were a couple of moments where we lost our focus and they got the better of us.
“Whether I have the armband or not, I like to be the leader on the pitch and I’m very vocal but to wear the armband is special.
“We had chances and on another day we could’ve made more of that. It’s something to learn from but it’s still a positive that we’ve created those opportunities.
“We need to stay focus, stay driven and take things a game at a time between now and the end of the season.”
