West Ham United Women’s manager Paul Konchesky praised the effort and desire of his players in their 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.
Second-half strikes from Lucía García and Hannah Blundell saw the visitors to Chigwell Construction Stadium secure the victory over the Irons in their second match of the new Barclays Women’s Super League season.
Lucy Parker had a goal ruled out with 25 minutes to play, whilst other chances fell to Lisa Evans and Viviane Asseyi, but the Hammers could not find a way back into the game in the closing stages.
The boss was disappointed to be on the losing side, but said that there were plenty of positives to take into their next match, against WSL champions Chelsea on Wednesday evening.
It’s frustrating to lose today.
We knew coming into the game that Manchester United are a very strong side. I said to the team in the changing room that I thought the effort, and the desire to keep going was second to none.
As I’ve said before the season got underway, this team will give everything in each game that they play, and they did exactly that today.
Both goals that we conceded were disappointing.
We can definitely do better with the goals. Did they catch us cold? Maybe, but like I say the first goal for me is preventable. It’s a long ball that’s been delivered well, but we could have dealt with it a little better.
If Lucy Parker’s goal stands, then that changes the game.
When I looked over when the goal went in, the linesperson on the far side didn’t have the flag up, so the decision hasn’t been made at that point.
Then you see some of the Manchester United players talking to the referee, and then the linesperson ends up giving a free-kick and calling Lucy as offside.
I’m not really sure what happened, but myself and my staff think that the goal should have stood, which would have made for an interesting finish.
Izzy Atkinson deserved her chance today.
She’s shown how lively she can be in training since she joined us, and I was really pleased to be able to put her out there.
Again, young Thea (Kyvåg) came on in the last ten minutes and put herself about, which was good as well. It’s nice to give these young players some opportunities, and it shows as a Club what we’re trying to do here.
There’s plenty of positives that we can take into Chelsea
We know it’s going to be another tough contest, but we’re back in the training ground on Monday, ready to put in the work and make sure that we’re as prepared as we can be.
We will give it our all again, and hopefully we will come away from the game with some points and a positive performance.
