Tottenham boss Vicky Jepson admitted her players were "heartbroken" following their last-gasp defeat to Everton in the Women's Super League.
Spurs fell behind just four minutes into Sunday's contest thanks to a smart finish from Nicoline Sorensen. However, the visitors rallied well at Walton Hall Park and restored parity less than 20 minutes later when Eveliina Summamen coolly dispatched Beth England's cut-back into the bottom corner.
After a second half of few chances for either side, it looked like Spurs were destined to pick up a crucial point on their travels, however Chelsea loanee Aggie Beever-Jones struck in stoppage time to clinch all three points for Everton. The defeat was Tottenham's 11th in 12 games, with Spurs now just three points off bottom-placed Brighton, and Jepson expressed her disappointment at conceding so late in the game.
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"I'm heartbroken and so are the rest of the team because when you concede like that, last minute, in extra time, it's tough to take," she told football.london after the game. "But when the emotions have gone, I know that there are many positives that we can take from that performance.
"Everton are a good team, we know that. They create lots of problems with their rotations and the way that Brian Sorensen wants them to play but I felt we handled it really, really well. It was probably the best resolute performance that I've seen from the group so far.
"Last time we played Everton at home, we couldn't get anywhere near them. Reflecting on that and comparing to where we are now, we're in a far better place. There will be positives but right now, we hurt. But that's okay. It's because we care and we always want to win."
While Beth England was on hand to set up the opener on Sunday afternoon, she was limited to a few touches in the opposition box and had just one shot on goal across the whole 90 minutes. And Jepson believes providing their January signing - who has already notched five goals for Spurs - with better service could be the key to getting more points on the board.
"She's a top player, so when teams are doing opposition profiles, they're going to talk about Beth which means her work is going to be harder. You could see that they were tight, they didn't let her out of there.
"She's got to find little half yards to get on the ball but, ultimately, her teammates around her have got to find the service as well. It's a thing to work on but we've already seen Beth score chances out of nothing already this season for us.
"Hopefully, that will continue but we need to work on our service and then work on Beth getting half a yard to get herself on the ball a bit more."
The upcoming international break means Tottenham will now have almost three weeks to prepare for their next WSL clash with Aston Villa on April 23. And while Jepson conceded Sunday's result was frustrating, she is confident the performance against Everton can give her players a solid platform to build on for the remainder of the season.
"In training this week, there's just been an air of confidence in the way that we've been possessing the ball. Then, I knew that out of possession that we were hungry. We were really clear on what our roles and responsibilities were," she said.
"We weren't going to go chasing. We would just stay in a mid-block and make sure that we handled and passed on the rotations that Everton do. I knew coming into the game that they were ready, they were focused, they would compete.
"When we conceded, I did question how we were going to respond. But actually, we did in the best possible way by scoring. I'm really pleased with the performance but, right now, it's hard to look at those positives while we're finding it tough with the end result."
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