McManus: Unlucky On The Day

- LCFC Women beaten 1-0 by West Ham in Barclays Women’s Super League
- A last minute goal from Hammers substitute Izzy Atkinson settled the scoreline
- McManus was disappointed to leave Chigwell Construction Stadium without the points
- We can’t get ourselves down, we must work hard to go again, says the midfielder

City were seconds away from picking up their first point of the season, until the Hammers found the net against the run of play, leaving McManus to believe the Foxes' effort deserved more.

“Yeah, it’s disheartening,” she told LCFC TV. “We’re in need of points, at the bottom of the table, and we know to create that many chances and not put it in the back of the net is frustrating as a team.

“But we can’t get ourselves down, obviously there’s some tough games coming up, we need to get points on the board, and we were unlucky not to today.

“It took us a little bit of time to adapt. We pressed high and won the ball back well. For their goal, I could’ve played it wider but there’s nobody there and they attack us, but it’s just one of those things, it’s onto the next game now.”

“There was a penalty call that we didn’t get, it’s not something we want to moan about but if it’s given, it’s a different game. There’s nothing we can do about it now and we haven’t got the three points, but we’ve got to go again, work harder and hopefully we’ll get some soon.”

She continued: “Willie [Kirk] made it clear we can’t sit down and feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve not even come away with a point which would’ve been a fair reflection of the game but now we’ve got to get back on the training pitch and put things right.”

The central defender was deployed in a different position at the weekend, featuring as the holding anchor in the midfield three, and was happy to make the transition in the new system.

She explained: “Willie made a massive shake up, obviously I’ve stopped out of the backline into the midfield, where I need to check my shoulder more, I almost got whiplash out there today, but I like his style.

“We haven’t had much time with him, and we’re still learning as a team together of what he wants us to do so we’ll just have to what and see.

“I think it’s clear that Willie likes experience in the team, especially since we’re the bottom team right now but we’ve just got to work hard, and we did that today. We were just unlucky.

“Fair enough to West Ham, they put bodies on the line and stopped us. I think there were four shots at one point, and one was cleared off the line, so well done to them for getting the points, but now we move onto the next one.”