Renee: “We looked more like ourselves”

Head coach Renee Slegers put our 5-0 win at home to Crystal Palace down to an improved second-half performance at Mangata Pay UK Stadium on Sunday.

“I’m super happy with the result,” she told us after the match. “If we could’ve signed for this beforehand, I would. I’m happy with the clean sheet, five goals, a variety of goals.

“If you look at the performance I think you see that we haven’t played a game for a month. Our last game was here at Borehamwood against Bayern and you could see that in the first half. We didn’t really find the connection or those perfect timings and the quality on the ball, but we still get the 1-0 from a set-piece. We’ve been scoring more from set-pieces, which is positive as well.

“But then I think if you look at us in the second half, we looked more like ourselves, found better connections, positioning and speed in our attacks with better decision making. I’m obviously very happy with the four goals we scored in the second half.

“We tweaked some details and, when the girls came on, starting with Caitlin Foord, we changed a little bit on the left side in her positioning. The girls made a great impact coming on, the game changers, but mostly I think the girls just needed time together to play and get back into it.”

Asked about the importance of the early goal Leah Williamson scored, Renee discussed how it helped to take the pressure off against a low block.

“That was very nice,” she said. “It gave us a positive entry into the game and I think we gave them a little bit in the first half, some spaces and opportunities. We’ll review that because we have some big games coming up where we have to be even more solid defensively, but we knew that Crystal Palace would come out in the first half aggressively.

“They make quick starts in their halves and that’s what they did. Even though it wasn’t aggressive going forward, they do create and they create xG. We also knew second half they tend to drop and the opposition get more chances and that’s what happened today as well so we knew that so we could be persistent with what we’re doing and keep patience as well.”

Renee also had a message for the supporters, who were in full voice in Borehamwood ahead of some big away games on the horizon.

“Thanks again for the support today,” she said. “It was cold. Sorry for the first half, we had to try and get it right, but I think hopefully the second half we brought some good football and some goals. The fans mean a lot. In this first half where we had to get it right, they kept on singing, they kept on supporting. They really helped us today and I know we’ve sold out away sections many times in our away games. They’re amazing and we have some big games coming up now, so it will be great to share all this with them.”