6 months ago
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The Reds finished in fourth place in the WSL.
Liverpool Women have finished fourth in their second season back in the WSL. After the final whistle blew, manager Matt Beard published his final weekly column of the season to sum up his thoughts.
The final game of the season against Leicester City saw star forward Leanne Kiernan bag a hat trick to help the Reds finish the season with a resounding 4-0 victory at King Power Stadium. Kiernan has suffered from many injury setbacks this season, so seeing her once again prove her class was a welcome sight for the manager.
“It was a fantastic day for Leanne Kiernan to get her hat-trick and she deserved that. Obviously Mia Enderby has been doing well alongside Sophie Roman Haug and deserved her starts, but Leanne has come off the bench and had a massive impact in the games as well,” Beard said.
“I guess if you are a centre-half and you see Mia go off, only to then see Leanne come on, that is not an enjoyable experience playing against them. It has been a great headache for me to have this year, especially since Leanne came back.”
In the end, Liverpool landed in fourth place, above both local rivals Everton and Manchester United. Though the fans obviously take pleasure in that for bragging rights, Beard’s only focus is on how many points they can pick up, irrespective of how it compares to others.
“I know people will try to make it a big thing that we finished six points ahead of Manchester United in the WSL table, but I don’t make a big thing of finishing above them. We just concentrate on ourselves. I think we finished where we did on merit.
“I actually think we could have got a few more points but obviously every manager will look over the course of the season and think, ‘We shouldn’t have dropped points there.’ But it has been a fantastic season for us. We just have to make sure we improve next year.”
The goal for year one back in the WSL was survival, which they met and exceeded by coming in seventh out of 12 teams. The goal for this season was to put some strong performances and stay in the mid-table range. They once again killed it by bagging fourth place. Surely next season, the goal is to compete for the top three Champions League spots to get the Reds back into European competition.
Beard has a big summer ahead of him, but the boss and his team have shown that they have the drive and work ethic to continue exceeding expectations moving forward.
