Sunday was tough to take because I didn’t feel we deserved to lose the game. You could see in the last 20 minutes we were the team that was really in the ascendancy.

We took the game to Arsenal. They were really holding on at the end and had to defend for their lives.

I think for us, for where we are and where we have been, and particularly with some key players missing, to be able to do that speaks volumes about the way we are taking this thing.

Yes, we know we are in a difficult run at the moment with results but apart from the game at West Ham last week, I think our performance levels have been really good.

The performance level was good against Arsenal. We always know that there will be periods in a game where we have good control and that is really difficult to do against Arsenal, who have got a big squad with a lot of quality options to be able to choose from.

I thought we were really unfortunate to not come in ahead at half-time instead of 2-1 down and that was frustrating with the disallowed goal.

At half-time we kept to the positives and spoke to the players about the things we had done really well. We just needed to turn up the levels a notch.

We had some good opportunities at the end but we didn’t take them. That was frustrating because I think on another day we take a point or arguably even more.

I never like or want to lose but I think there is a way to be defeated and we played to our style, our way on Sunday. Our supporters were right behind us as they always are, we really appreciate them and I think they could see that was a performance to be proud of.

We now head into another busy week with Wednesday night’s Subway Players Cup tie against Aston Villa at St Helens Stadium before we face the long trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Potentially I will look at some tweaks here and there with the team for Wednesday night. Mao Itamura is getting stronger and we saw that when she came off the bench against Arsenal. She is a player with good ability, she can create at the top end of the pitch for us, which is something we need.

We want to stay in this competition for as long as we possibly can.

00:00

Live: Liverpool FC Women vs Aston Villa | Subway Players Cup

It’s then a quick turnaround with the Barclays Women's Super League visit to Brighton on Saturday.

There isn’t much time to prepare and recover but at the moment I think the signs are good. I do believe performances have been good in general.

Our points return so far is a bit tough on us. We’ve certainly been in most of the games and deserved to win ones like Tottenham, London City at home and Aston Villa.

If we can maintain those performance levels I think it’s only a matter of time before we get back to winning ways. We will get stronger in the second part of the season and we’ll start to see some good returns.

Thanks for your support.

YNWA,