Matt Beard believes his Liverpool players looked 'scared' in their defeat to Everton and refused to use playing at Anfield as an 'excuse' for his side's 3-0 defeat.
Despite beating Chelsea last week in their opening WSL game of the season, the Reds were second best against their Merseyside rivals at Anfield. The victory was Everton’s first of the campaign after defeat to West Ham United last Sunday.
Megan Finnigan gave Everton an early lead when she sent a header past goalkeeper Rachael Laws before Jess Park made it 2-0 just before the interval. The Blues were dominant and eventually added a third three minutes from time thanks to Hanna Bennison's strike.
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“Everton deserved to win it and I was disappointed with how we started it. It was slow, I wouldn’t say lethargic, we looked scared,” Beard said post-match.
“But we have to learn how to deal with these types of stadiums and these types of crowds, and Everton took full advantage of that, and credit to them.
“Disappointed with the amount of turnover, especially in the first 20 minutes. First goal, the second goal, even though the first one was a set-play, it came from us giving the ball away.
“It was a little bit uncharacteristic of us tonight in that first 20 minutes. But we can’t change that now, we have to make sure we learn from tonight and stick together.
“We took the plaudits last week after beating Chelsea, and tonight we have been beaten and we have got to learn from that.”
The derby was played out in front of 27,574 spectators, a record crowd for a WSL game at Anfield. And Beard believes his players must learn to cope with playing in front of big crowds as the women’s game is only heading in one direction.
He said: “I don’t want that to be the excuse, but it is definitely going to be a factor, we don’t play here week in week out. We play at Prenton Park - and Prenton Park has been very good to us.
“It does add pressure to us for sure, but we have got to cope with that pressure because this is the way the women’s game is going. Look at the Euros, look at the Emirates yesterday, this is the way the game is going.
“We are desperately disappointed with our performance tonight, but unfortunately it is what it is.”
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