Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor has heaped praise on winger Julie Blakstad following the Norwegian's goal-scoring turn against Everton on Saturday.
Blakstad featured in City's starting XI for the first time since October's Continental Cup victory over Blackburn, and the 21-year-old reapid her manager's show of faith by netting inside 32 minutes to give the visitors the lead. City were temporarily pegged back at Walton Hall Park thanks to a Rikke Sevecke goal on the stroke of half-time, but top-scorer Bunny Shaw slotted her eighth goal of the season shortly after the break to seal the three points for Gareth Taylor's side.
Blakstad was brought into the side to deputise for England forward Lauren Hemp, who picked up a thigh injury in City's 3-0 victory over Reading earlier this month. With Hemp set to undergo a further scan later this week, Blakstad's impressive weekend display promises to ease a selection headache for Gareth Taylor ahead of a busy run of fixtures before Christmas.
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"We think for us in our system as an 11 where Lauren plays [is Julie's best position]. They give you different things," Taylor said after the said. "It will have done wonders for her confidence scoring the goal.
"She looked physically strong in a tough 90 minutes like that and she coped physically and gets into really good areas. She’s a young player from a different league, playing in a new team and hasn’t played since the Continental Cup which can be difficult to get that rhythm.
"She came in and did really well and when you play against that back three like Everton have, you know you’ll get chances."
Blakstad signed for City in January after an eye-catching spell at Toppserien outfit Rosenborg, where she scored 17 goals in 35 appearances. Reflecting on her performance against Everton, the Norway international said: “I like to contribute high up the pitch, scoring goals is always fun.
"It was a great ball from Bunny and I just have to thank her for that one so I’m really happy. If you have time (in front of goal), you think 'don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss' so it's hard sometimes but it was a good feeling to see the ball go into the goal."
While Blakstad's quality on the left flank could be key for City in the coming weeks, Taylor will be keen to have Hemp back and fighting fit as soon as possible to boost his side's title chances. Offering an update on Hemp after the Everton game, Taylor said: "Lauren has had an original scan which showed up an issue, we just need to determine how big an issue that is.
"Sometimes with muscle tendons it needs to be rescanned to try and find out for certain. It’ll be a push maybe for the derby (on December 11), it’s an outside chance.
"We’ll know more probably at the end of this week when she has the rescan."
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