West Ham United Women’s midfielder Kate Longhurst reflected on her teams 2-0 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday morning.
The Hammers created a number of opportunities in the first half, before the home side turned up the heat and scored two quickfire goals in the opening stages of the second period.
“I thought we played well in parts,” Longhurst began. “We had a lot of chances where we could have got a couple of goals.
“I thought we defended quite well but it’s the same old story, we concede one goal and then another one follows very quickly.
“We’ve got to start taking those chances and stop conceding at the other end. Of course, it’s great to play here, but when you lose it’s not really a great day out."
Casey Stoney’s side occupied 4th position going into this match, but it was the side from East London who should have been ahead going into the break. Dagny Brynjarsdottir and Matha Thomas having the best of the opportunities during the first 45 minutes.
“We created chances, but we’re in a position now where we really need to start taking them. We’re at the bottom of the table for a reason. I think our squad is better than that position, but our results are dictating that and we can only rely on ourselves, which means going to Reading and picking up three points.
“Nobody wants to be bottom of the league and I feel like we’re a lot better than that as a squad. We are thin on numbers at the moment, so we haven’t got a lot of ways to change things up. We have to go there looking to get three points because the longer you’re at the bottom, the tougher it gets.
“We’re not panicking, we’re working hard in training and in matches, it’s just putting together the finishing details so that we can start to come away with some points from matches like these,” she said.
Despite the result, it was a fantastic opportunity for the players to play at such an iconic stadium, and Longhurst was pleased to have been part of that occasion.
“First of all the pitch is huge, so you really do have to run a lot to get across it, but the surface is unbelievable. It would have been nice if we could have had fans here today as I’m sure Manchester United would have got a good following.
“It’s one of the best stadia in the world so it was great to play here, and I’d love to play on a pitch like this every week. However, not getting any points is disappointing as I think we deserved something from the game.
“If you look at the match before the red card, I think we deserved to come away with something, but unfortunately, it’s not to be, but it was a great occasion to play here.”