Speaking after late drama at the Joie Stadium saw his Manchester City side loosen their grip on the Barclays Women’s Super League trophy, Gareth Taylor admitted that their loss to Arsenal is ‘a tough one for us to take’ but stressed that ‘nothing is going to change’ in terms of his side’s mentality.
Manchester City looked to be in control throughout the first half, seizing the lead shortly after the fifteen-minute mark when Lauren Hemp smashed home a stunning effort on the turn, but that dominance wavered after the break.
‘I think it’s a tough one for us to take, admitted Taylor in his post-match press conference. ‘I didn’t think we really had much control in the second half, we didn’t create as much as we normally do with our possession and we allowed them a little bit more territory than we would have liked.’
‘I think it’s really tough on the girls, that result, because when you’re holding on and trying to get over the line, you can be at your most vulnerable on those occasions. I think a defeat is tough for us, a draw probably would have been fairer for both teams but that’s football, it can happen, and the good thing is that we’ve got one more game.’
Embed from Getty Images‘The first half, I thought we were good. We looked like the team that were going to build on what we had already. Of course Arsenal tried to overload it wide with the full-backs high, but they leave themselves space as well down the sides,’ he explained.
But despite the title race muddying with this late defeat, inflicted by a Stina Blackstenius brace, Taylor stressed: ‘I’ve always said that the game will go to the final day, nothing’s going to change. I’ve never spoke and I’ve never changed my thought process on what they do, what these are doing and what the other ones are doing – we knew what we had to do.’
‘Of course, it’d have been nice to win the game today but we’ve got another opportunity at Villa and of course yeah, we need to win the game first and hope that that’s enough to secure us the title. They opened the door the other night, and we’ve opened the door back again a little bit. It is what it is. Nothing’s changed in our thought process – we knew that we’d have to go to Villa to win the last game of the season.’
