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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Beth Lindop

Matt Beard makes Liverpool 'overachieving' claim after Brighton comeback win

Liverpool boss Matt Beard believes his side have "overachieved" on their first season back in the top flight, with Sunday's victory over Brighton moving the Reds nine points clear of the relegation zone.

The Seagulls took the lead 39 minutes into the contest at Prenton Park thanks to a stunning long-range effort from Elisabeth Terland. However, a much-improved second half display saw Liverpool come from behind to claim all three points, with Ceri Holland netting twice in the space of 15 minutes.

The win has all but guaranteed Liverpool's top-flight survival, and Beard believes his side are close to matching the target points tally he issued at the start of the season.

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"I was disappointed with the first-half performance," the Reds boss said after the game. "I felt we started well and were on the front foot and then we let it become transitional.

"It was frustrating and we shouldn’t have conceded that goal but second half we were much better. We were braver with the ball, we moved it much quicker and played through them. We knew that we could hurt them and we did that."

Liverpool are now four games unbeaten in the Women's Super League and Beard will be hoping his side can extend that run when they take on bottom-of-the table Leicester next weekend. The Foxes came out on top when the two sides met in the reverse fixture at Prenton Park, but the Liverpool boss believes all of the pressure will be on the opposition when the Reds travel to the East Midlands.

"I think we definitely played with pressure today, you could see that in the first half. I said to them at half-time, it’s a little bit too individual for me today and we need to be making the right decisions for the team rather than ourselves," Beard said.

"From my perspective we set ourselves a points tally of 22/23 and we're right on target for that now. We'll have a say in the title race because we've got to play City, Chelsea and United but we just want to finish the season as strongly as we can and finish as high up the league table as we can."

He added: "I think if you look at history we've overachieved this year so far and I’m really pleased with how we’ve dealt with every moment. We’ve had a lot of injuries this year so we’ve had to keep changing the system- but the players have dealt with it fantastically and they deserve credit.

"We’re now on a four-game unbeaten run and it’s good that we’ve got a run of games where we can carry that on."

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