Liverpool Women finished second-last in the FA Women’s Super League last season and for much of the year seemed favourites to end up relegated. A series of smart January transfers and a second half surge, though, kept them safe in the end and meant people were cautiously hopefully heading into the new season.
That season got off to the best possible start on Sunday as the reds hammered newly promoted Charlton Athletic 4-0, a result which means they end matchweek one top of the FAWSL table, at least
on goal differential, and with a week two match against Tottenham on the horizon that will be tougher but is far from impossible.
“I’m really happy,” head coach Gareth Taylor said afterwards. “I think the most important thing for of course is the result and the three points, but more than that was the confidence building. We’ve had a really good pre-season and when you get to the first game you want to transfer that on to the first performance.
Most probably would have expected the Liverpool side that ended last season to beat Charlton, but what was encouraging was just how well they played and how comprehensive the victory was—putting proof to the promise shown by in pre-season. And Taylor is confident it won’t be a good one-off performance.
“The exciting part is that we will only improve and get better,” he added. “I think that we don’t want to put a limit on what we feel we can achieve by naming something. We want to be up there at the top part of the league, so we know that there’s a big challenge ahead of us, but we’re confident in the work that we do.
“We were looking good today. We weren’t last season at the beginning. It was really tough because we came in late and it’s amazing what working with players can actually do. The level of improvement has been impressive and you have to give credit to the girls for that, and it’s exciting because there’s more to come.”
