London Bees 3-4 Everton Ladies

Andy Spence is expecting his side to finish the season on a high after missing out on promotion last week.

Everton may have been pipped to promotion last weekend, but manager Andy Spence expects his young squad to do the club proud in their final game of the season against London Bees.

The Blue Girls suffered a heart-breaking defeat to Bristol City on Saturday as they lost 3-2 with Spence’s side needing a draw or a win to extend the race for promotion into the final week of the season.

Instead the defeat means that Everton will have to settle for a third place finish if they win this weekend against the Bees.

“This is such a young team, there’s not much experience within it,” Spence said. “It was a big game for them, it was almost like a cup final week feel to it, and the average age is probably about 20.

“They’re young and so desperate to play well for Everton which is brilliant to see, but it’s not turned out to be (against Bristol City).

The loss was a valuable lesson for the young squad and Spence is keen for Everton to sign off the campaign in style.

“We’ll go into the London Bees game with professionalism, the girls who have performed all season and the players on the bench and who have been great and contributed – they’ll all get their rewards in the sense of being part of that final day.

“It’ll be a final day where I still want to see an Everton team show that pride with big hearts and I think we’ll see that.”