Matt Beard Delighted With Good Win

Missy Bo Kearns and Ceri Holland each scored a goal against Reading in the second half of Sunday’s match against Reading to secure a solid victory. The three points were much-needed, and now the Reds sit in 8th place in the WSL.

After the game, manager Matt Beard talked about his happiness at notching another win this season.

“It’s a big three points for us, especially with the results on Saturday with Brighton drawing and Leicester City losing,” Beard said. “We didn’t really speak about that with the players [going into this game], we spoke about these two home games and just focusing on Reading, getting three points - and I’m delighted we did that today.”

With those additional three points, they are now eight points above Leicester City in the drop zone. Survival was the mission in their first season back in the top flight, and so far they are doing well enough to meet that goal.

Exciting, too, was the performance of new player Fuka Nagano in central midfield. The Japanese star joined the Reds in January and has already staked her claim on her position.

“Fuka coming in has helped. She is a diamond on the ball and even off the ball. She is surprisingly quick as well and she sees things that maybe other people don’t see. Fuka has settled in fantastically and we are only going to get better as a team with her,” Beard praised the versatile number eight.

While they aren’t lighting up the league the way that they did last season in the Championship, Liverpool are performing solidly “as needed” without their best player in the mix.

Their next match is at Prenton Park against bottom-dwellers Leicester. If they can win against them, Liverpool will creep even closer to the comfortable middle of the table.