Liverpool Women manager Gareth Taylor has set his standards high after the Reds’ convincing 4-0 victory away at newly-promoted Charlton Athletic to kickstart their Women Super League (WSL) campaign.
An early goal from captain Grace Fisk got the visitors off to a flying start before the goals flooded in the second half. Fisk doubled her tally with a caressed effort from range before debutant Vivien Endemann and Cornelia Kapocs from the penalty spot completed the rout.
It was the perfect start for Taylor and his side who already look a new team after a troubled time of it last season.
“[We want] To really move up,” Taylor said. “I think we don't want to put a limit to what we feel we can achieve by naming something. We want to be up there at the top part of the league, and we know that there's a challenge ahead of us. But we're confident in the work that we do.
“There were some good performances today, particularly in the second half, and we just keep encouraging the players to improve and get better and they've done that a lot. They really have.
“I think coaching from the guys and the technical team has been really good. 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 seen has been very impressive. You have to give great credit to the girls for that, because they were really good too. Like I said, it's exciting because there's more to come.”
Three points in the first match of the season is in stark contrast to last season, when it took until the new year for the Reds to secure their first win. There were plenty of high-calibre performances, in particular Endemann, who Charlton had no answers for all afternoon, and she deservedly got her goal.
Taylor hopes that achieving that notch early, alongside a promising set of pre-season results, can increase the belief in the camp that they can do something special.
“I think that this time last year we weren't ready, there's no denying that,” he said. “We were late and we just didn't feel like we were there.
“The pre-season has been really good, I think that's the bit for the girls that they've seen that performances have been good against good opposition.
“We've scored a lot of goals, we've scored about 26 goals in six games, including this one today, so I think that's no mean feat. For a team last season that wasn't scoring enough - we knew that - we're starting to turn the dial on it and that's all we're doing. It's three points. We'll move on to the next one. We understand that there'll be tougher challenges ahead. But we'll tackle it the same way as we have done today.”
While the performance was one to get excited about, it was against relegation favourites. The real test for Liverpool comes next week, Sunday 13th September, where they take on Spurs in their first home game of the season.
Under Martin Ho, Tottenham were in and around qualifying for Europe last season, and looked dangerous in their first match, winning 3-1 courtesy of a brace from Kirsty Hanson. Certainly a sterner test for Liverpool than Charlton’s flimsy attacking structure.
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