Ceri Holland: “We Are Looking Up Rather Than Looking Down”

Ceri Holland’s endless energy and physicality have been the driving force in midfield for Liverpool Women this season. Even as the attacking skills have fallen apart through injuries, she has remained reliable and powerful. She even very nearly had the winner in the match against Everton last week, had it not been saved by Courtney Brosnan. The match itself was full of dramatics, and that would’ve been the cherry on top.

“I think it was a really good game but obviously we were disappointed not to win it,” Holland said in an interview with the club website. “I think that shows how far we have come as a team, to come away from Goodison Park and be frustrated with just a point. We felt we could have won the game with the disallowed goal, which obviously I was involved in.

“That was difficult to take because we’ve watched it back and don’t believe it’s a foul on the goalkeeper. The referee has to make the decision in the moment and it’s difficult for them as well, so it’s just one of them that we have to take and move on.

“I’ve watched [the near goal] back a few times and thought, ‘How has the goalkeeper saved it?’ I thought it was flying into the corner of the net and it would have been the winner, but it was a great save.”

Holland has really cemented her place in midfield for the Reds, becoming one of the most reliable starters every week when fit. She proves her worth week in and week out, and anyone can see how much the squad depends on her presence. That confidence will definitely be something she herself will rely on heading down to West Ham over the weekend.

“It’s a really exciting game, we will go down there full of confidence off the back of two really good performances against Tottenham and Everton,” Holland continued.

“t’s a great opportunity for us to jump above them in the table and then chase down Everton, so we are really excited for the weekend and can’t wait. If we can go ahead of West Ham in the table going into the international break, that will be a really good place for us to be in.”

Every point counts, as Matt Beard mentioned in his weekly column, and while the Red Women are technically safe from relegation, that’s no reason not to try and get every point you can. With seven matches left in the season, every opportunity needs to be taken, even with tough opponents like Arsenal and Manchester United ahead.

“It’s nice we are looking up rather than looking down, that’s a nice position to be in, so we are looking to put in a really good performance at the weekend,” Holland iterated. “After the international break we’ve got Brighton at home and then Leicester City away, so we’d like to think we can get maximum points from them games and put ourselves in a good position - kind of where we hoped we would be at the start of the season.

“There’s a lot of positivity around the training ground and around the squad and it’s a nice position to not be in the relegation battle at the moment. But the job is not done and we know that with a couple of poor performances we would be back down there. Beardy keeps our feet on the ground and says we need to keep working hard, stay focused and get as many points as we can.”

The Women next play West Ham on Sunday April 2.