FOOTBALL Women's Football

Matt Beard praises Bristol City Women’s fine form

Bristol City Women head coach Matt Beard hailed his side’s progression after a 1-1 draw at West Ham in the WSL.

City capped off an impressive unbeaten week after wins in the league and WSL Cup, but couldn’t quite claim a third win as the Hammers’ Katerina Svitkova cancelled out Emily van Egmond’s own goal.

Beard expressed his delight at how far his team has come.

“We deserved to win. Tactically we were excellent,” Beard explained. “We’ve created numerous chances and hit the woodwork two or three times. I felt we were unlucky to only get a point.

“It shows how far we’ve come: we’re disappointed that we’ve only got one point. I’m really pleased with the performance, a tough game in tough conditions.”

City remain two points adrift of West Ham at the bottom of the Women’s Super League, but have found form under Beard, after he was brought in to cover for manager Tanya Oxtoby’s maternity leave.

Beard is aware that City’s survival now relies on other results, but remains optimisitc.

“From our perspective, everything is out of our hands. All we can do is keep putting performances in like today and keep picking points up.

“We need to create a habit of being consistent; I thought we were consistent today with and without the ball, and now we need to be consistent in picking up points.

“As long as we keep working hard, we’ll give ourselves a really good chance of staying in the division.”

Bristol City travel to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday evening.

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