Kate Cooper revealed she was pleased with St Mirren Women’s response to their painful Falkirk defeat.
Despite narrowly coming out on the losing side once again, this time on the road to Stenhousemuir, the Saints head coach believes her players showed they aren’t the kind to mump and moan when things don’t go their way.
After throwing away a three-goal lead to Falkirk the game before, the Buddies were determined to make amends and created plenty of chances at Ochilview on Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately for the Paisley club, they couldn’t capitalise on those opportunities, with Jude Connelly’s early opener proving the difference on the day.
Cooper felt her side showed plenty of character to respond in the right way, even though they couldn’t bring any points back to Paisley.
She told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It was a massive improvement on the week before, particularly the second half, against Falkirk.
“We had a lot of injuries and only managed to travel through with 12 players. We had to juggle the team around a bit and some players were out of position, but the overall performance was very positive.
“We created a lot, including two clear cut chances in the first half that unfortunately we couldn’t take. They then took the lead and held on to it very well.
“Stenny are a hard team to play against and we just couldn’t find an equaliser, but I was happy with the way we pulled ourselves up from the loss the previous week.
“We always learn from our losses and our players don’t sulk. They learn from every defeat and, to me, that’s the sign of a good team.
“Sophie Cannon in particular bounced back very well. She’s only 20, which is very young for a goalkeeper, but she showed great maturity for her age to put in a player of the match performance.”
Much like the St Mirren men’s team, Cooper’s side are hoping to secure a top-six finish this season.
With just one game to go before the SWF Championship split, St Mirren Women know a win against Paisley rivals Glennifer Thistle this Sunday will guarantee them a top half finish.
And Cooper believes her players have what it takes to get the job done this weekend, having put in an impressive shift up until this point.
Cooper said: “We’ve got ourselves into a very good position. The challenge for us was to get in the top-six this season and we know a win against Gleniffer will secure that.
“The players we have here would rather be playing the stronger teams at the end of the season, because they know that will help their development more in the long run.
“We finished third-bottom of the table last year, so the improvement has been remarkable this season.
“It’s been a really tough campaign and I don’t think people maybe realise how hard it is for our players, who have to play so many games while also maintaining a full-time job and managing their own families.
“We’ll have played 30 games come the end of the season and the players deserve huge credit for what they’ve given us already so far.
“They give so much to play for the club and hopefully they can get the reward of a top-six finish over the line this weekend.”
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