England: ‘We need to find confidence within ourselves again’

Bethany England knows that we have been ‘nowhere near our standards’ as we suffered heavy back-to-back defeats on the road in the Women’s Super League.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY to reflect on the 5-2 loss in the north London derby at the Emirates Stadium, our captain painted a frustrated figure following the disappointing result, spanning our winless run to three games in the league, but is determined to find our confidence on the pitch once again.

Arriving at the home of our local rivals, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb after just seven minutes as Alessia Russo scored a quick-fire double and, while an own goal halved the deficit for us, the Gunners led 4-1 by the hour mark as Russo completed the hat-trick and Caitlin Foord was on target in the second period.

Our number nine made her 200th WSL appearance when she stepped off the bench and pulled one back on the evening, but that was enough to spark any late comeback as Stina Blackstenius made it 5-2 in stoppage time.

Despite a tough run of results in recent weeks, Bethany knows the quality that team possess – as shown with performances earlier in the campaign – and it’s just about finding that belief once again.

“Tough day,” she said, reflecting on the defeat to Arsenal. “A really tough couple of weeks, conceding 10 goals in two games is nowhere near our standards. It's how we can bring ourselves together as a group. Obviously, coming to the Emirates in front of a very in form side and giving away too many individual errors that ultimately cost us, giving ourselves a mountain to climb.

“We can say it's individual errors but, ultimately, we're a team and we're a team for a reason, so we have to make sure we get our arms around each other and try to give ourselves the confidence we know that where we can play some great football again.

“I felt like the last 20 minutes, especially, we really got in their face and we limited them to chances. I know Blackstenius scored in the final moments, but that was probably from our high risk in trying to push for a third goal.

“We showed that we could match them in areas. It's just how can we do that consistently from the off and for 90 minutes, and not just in spells where it's almost too big of a deficit to climb at that point.

“We really need to find the belief and confidence within ourselves because off the back of two defeats, two heavy defeats, we can't be sat here feeling sorry for ourselves. The fans don't pay to come and watch us feel sorry for ourselves. They come to watch us play good football. Hopefully what we're going to give them next week.”