Dan McNamara says his Wolves Women side were ‘excellent’ in their dramatic victory against Loughborough Lightning on Sunday afternoon.
Wolves were 3-2 winners over their East Midlands opposition, with goals from Beth Merrick and Charlotte Greengrass setting up a tense final 20 minutes with both sides searching for the winner.
Amber Hughes answered the call, netting a winner in the dying stages to earn her side all three points in the FAWNL. McNamara touched on the performance, the second-half goals, and next week’s FA Cup clash at home to Stoke, live on TNT Sports.
On the performance
“It's hard to sum that one up. I think there's only one place to start, congratulations to Charlie, his team and his staff, I think that shows how false that league table is at the minute.
“I thought they were excellent, and caused us a lot of problems throughout the 90 minutes. Probably deserved to take the lead in that 10 minute period before half-time.
“We spoke today about how you can't always turn up and control every variable in football, your touch, how you are physically, but one thing you can control is your willingness to win, you have to go to to the trenches, what have you got in the tank to get through, and I think we saw that today, thought we saw it ten fold, especially in that second half.
“I thought we were tremendous, the reaction from half-time I thought was absolutely brilliant, with that willingness to really go and find that way to win, and that's what good teams do.
“You have to have a bit of luck, that real desire to succeed and I thought the girls really showed that today, and rightly so, we won the game in the end.”
On the relief of the second-half goals
“I felt we probably did enough to go in at half-time four or five up, I think the girls were more disappointed with the chance creation as opposed to them being converted.
“In the second half we spoke about that in length about various things, a little bit heated, but I just wanted a reaction and I thought we got that.
“These are superb players, they aren't robots, they can't perform every minute but they're superb players. When [Racheal] Quigley goes on the pitch you know she's going to create something, when Amber [Hughes] goes through on goal you know she's going to score, and thankfully they've managed to combine.
“Charlotte [Greengrass], I think on another day she scores three, but she got the important one that got us back into the game.
“Overall, what a journey, what a ride it's been so far this season, you have to ride the wave, it can't all be winning and everything good. Today was a different side of what it takes to put a record together like the girls have.
“I thought the fans were fantastic, really loud in the tough moments towards the final stages of the game, I thought they helped keep us going.
“I’m an emotional person, and I think Lee was brilliant today, in his decision making behind me and the way he was with the girls. I think he deserved big plaudits today, the way he handled tough moments, and that's why we work so well together. Delighted to get another win on the board.”
On Friday’s FA Cup clash vs Stoke
“We’ve got to try and take away the emotion of it, it's a Staffordshire derby. We have to make sure we get through, we don't want our journey to be halted in the FA Cup this year by a local rival in Stoke, certainly don't want to do it here and we don't want to do it in front of national television either.
“I’m sure that's what they're also saying, and I'm sure not losing is involved in their game plan. So we’ve got to be at it, we know what Stoke will bring, probably a lot of what we've already seen here today in the first half from Loughborough.
“It’ll be a special moment to be live on TNT, brilliant for us, myself and all of our families, so we’re really excited for Friday."
