Molly Pike insists Everton are determined to “keep winning and improving” as the Toffees aim to sustain their perfect start to the 2019/20 campaign with a Continental Cup victory at Birmingham City on Sunday (2pm).
Everton sit top of the FA WSL table having secured maximum points from their opening two league matches.
After edging out Sunday’s opponents Birmingham 1-0 on the opening day of the season, Willie Kirk’s side delivered an impressive team performance to overcome Bristol City 2-0 at Southport FC last week.
This weekend’s contest in Solihull represents Everton’s first in the Continental Cup group stage.
Manager Kirk has described the Blues’ group as “without doubt the toughest in the competition”, with Manchester United, Manchester City and Leicester City also in Everton’s section.
Midfielder Pike, who joined the Toffees from Chelsea this summer, revealed the squad’s collective hunger to build on their fine start to the campaign when they face Marta Tejedor’s Birmingham.
“Everyone’s mentality is to keep winning and keep improving on our performances”, the 18-year-old told evertonfc.com.
“Everyone is really happy but we’ve still got that focus. We’re not going to be complacent and let our standards drop.
“We beat Birmingham in the league only two weeks ago, but the performance was not as good as we wanted.
“We knew we could do better, so we put a lot of work in and showed what we could do [against Bristol].
“That has given us even more confidence.
“I think it’ll be a tough game [against Birmingham], but I think we can win again. And we want to play a lot better than we did a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s fresh in our mind how Birmingham play and who their key players are. But, of course, they might tweak their team or their system.
“But we know we’ve beaten them once, so we can do it again.”
Two stunning Chloe Kelly strikes earned Everton victory against Bristol last time out.
Pike laid the ball off to the explosive forward for her second of the game – a 35-yard rocket that flew past Robins goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley and into the top corner of her net.
“It was special being involved in a goal like that, but I think all the credit has to go to Chloe,” said Pike
“As well as being an incredible goal, it was a big moment in the game. It was just before half-time and meant we went into the break two-up.
“It gave the whole team a boost and changed the momentum of the game.”