Charlton Women suffered their second defeat on the bounce on Sunday when Bristol City beat the Addicks 2-1.
Karen Hills reflected on the frustrating home defeat: “They’ve come down from the WSL and kept a lot of their players so we knew it was going to be a really tough game. We needed to be at our very best and you can’t give a team like that a two-goal head start with 18 minutes on the clock."
Despite the uphill battle from that point, Hills commended her team’s response: “The reaction was really positive from the group after conceding. I thought we then looked strong, and to be fair, we got the goal that could have got us back in it. We knew we had a lot to do.”
She continued, “We knew where we could hurt them, but at the same time, they're a class outfit. Like I said, we needed to be at our best, and I’m disappointed with the goals. I think we probably needed to do a little bit better.”
Rather than treating the result as a disaster, Hills focused on the lessons to be learned. She remarked, “Listen, we’ll learn.”
Hills particularly praised the resilience of the Addicks: “I can’t fault the grit, the determination, and the fight.” However, she conceded, “You’ve got to hold your hands up. Sometimes you come up against opposition that maybe are a little bit faster than you, a little bit more powerful, see passes, and are a little bit more clinical. That’s what happened today.”
Though dissatisfied with the result and the lack of clinical edge, Hills found encouragement in the moments when her team’s quality and personality shone through. “We’re a good side when we want to be a good side,” she concluded, “and we showed it in patches today, we really did.”
(Article by Sam Randall, transcription by Lloyd Hassell)