Livingston Women’s head coach Paul Jaconelli heaped praise on his side as a 4-1 away win against promotion rivals Renfrew saw the Lionesses jump to the summit of the SWF Championship table.
But he admitted he’s still not entirely happy with their style of play this season.
A first-half goal from Lucy Brown gave the away side the advantage at the half-time interval before Jen Dodds rolled the ball into an empty net four minutes after the restart as she was teed up perfectly by Ashley Fish.
The home side pulled a goal back but the Lionesses wrapped up a vital three points as goals in the final minutes from Fish and a second for Brown sealed the victory.
It was another display of grit and determination rather than silky, free-flowing football for Livingston and while the gaffer is more than happy to take that, he knows his side have more in their locker.
Speaking to the Courier, he said: “Football really is a funny old game sometimes because it’s another game where I can honestly say the football that we played wasn’t at the same level of last season.
“But once again, we’ve shown that extra dig and fight that we lacked last year and it’s been the difference. The football we played in the build-up to the goals was brilliant but outside of that it was really a sleeves rolled up type of afternoon for us.”
Livi went into the clash level on points with Renfrew and he knows just how pivotal that result could be come the end of the season – and the message it sends out to the rest of the league.
He added: “I think it was a bit of a statement win, especially to do it away from home, it adds that extra bit.
“It’s such a difficult league this year and every game is going to be massive but to have a result like that at this stage possibly sets a bit of a marker down.
“But our challenge is to build on that. We’ve got Ayr United this week and we got off lightly when they scored five against us in a cup game last year so we’re under no illusions as to how difficult a task it will be on Sunday.”
The gaffer reserved special praise for youngster Brown, who stepped into the first-team and bagged a brace, saying: “She was terrific. I had to change shape a bit with Gemma Mason unavailable and Lucy stepped in and put in a great performance.
“She’s a very talented young player and she’ll get her chances in the team this season because she’s already shown that she deserves to be here.”
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