We Must Get Back To It, Says Kirk

- LCFC Women were beaten 1-0 by West Ham United in Barclays Women’s Super League
- Substitute Izzy Atkinson scored an 89th minute winner for the Hammers
- Manager Willie Kirk believes his side were the better team at Chigwell Construction Stadium
- The positivity from the game will come to light in next few days, states Kirk

From the bench, Izzy Atkinson took the points for West Ham in the final stages of the game, leaving the Foxes to ponder their missed opportunities as they were on the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Following the match, Kirk provided an honest assessment to LCFC TV: “We're really disappointed because we felt we were good enough for the three points, so to come away with nothing is frustrating. We were on the front foot for most of the game, and I thought we were the better team, we had clear cut opportunities to win it.

“Even after the goal, we got back on top. It’s very frustrating but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we need to take the positives and feel the difference in the type of performances we’re producing.

“We very much played today to win the game. We were aggressive, on the front foot, and had a high starting position to turn the ball over and create chances. It’s a working progress, nothing’s really changed in my mind. We’ll have them in tomorrow and we’ll properly analyse it before returning to training on Wednesday.”

The manager continued: “My only concern is that the players will think it’s the same scenario as previous weeks with late goals, and I don’t think it is. The goals in the past have denied us of a point whereas today it cost us three.

“I’m hoping they’ll feel slightly different, but the players will probably be hurting even more. We did come here to win it, and if we’d have taken a point that would’ve been okay.”

Only able to stand and watch from the touchline, Kirk offered his perspective on the latter moments: “There’s no mistake in that goal, I think it’s a little bit of misfortune. We went to drive forward with the ball, it’s come off one of the players' faces and they’ve scored from there.

“But right now, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we must get back to it. There’s lots of positives. For the players, they’ll really come to light in the next couple of days.

“The danger is we take it to heart; we’ve got to keep working hard and it’ll balance itself out. Hopefully we’ll be standing here in a couple of months and the opposition manager will be talking about a bit of misfortune or we’ve had five or six goalline clearances, and that’ll happen.

“That’s what the players need to understand and take from this: if you work hard, any little breaks that feel like they’ve gone against us will start going for us.”