Everton Ladies are close to hitting their stride and showing WSL 1 what they can do, insists Chloe Kelly.
The Blue Girls have suffered narrow losses to Liverpool and Birmingham City in their opening two league games, but an improved second-half display against the latter has meant confidence continues to flow within the group.
Trailing 2-0 at half-time in Solihull, Kelly struck just four minutes after the restart but, despite carving out a host of opportunities, the Toffees just couldn’t quite find the goal that would earn them at least a draw.
Yet the display shows that Everton can handle the step up to WSL 1 and Kelly believes things are falling into place nicely.
“I definitely feel our best form is coming,” she told evertonfc.com. “In the Liverpool game we showed it in spells but throughout the second half against Birmingham we showed real quality. They didn’t really get any opportunities in the second half when we took the game to them. If we take that second-half performance into each game, I think we’ll be unplayable at times.
“There are a lot of positives we can take from our last game. We’re still new to the league and we need to get used to it. The quality we showed in pre-season and the football we can actually play is unbelievable.
“I feel like no-one can stop us when we play our football, but it’s just getting the confidence to do so and not be affected by the occasion. We need to just play our own game, show the quality that we have, and results will come. We have loads of games left to play this season.”
Up next for the Blue Girls is the visit of Manchester City to the Select Security Stadium on Saturday night (kick-off 7pm).
The Citizens kicked off their Champions League campaign against Austrian side St. Polten on Wednesday, having reached the semi-finals of the competition back in April where French powerhouse Lyon knocked them out.
Nick Cushing’s side have scored nine goals in two games so far this season, seeing off Yeovil 4-0, before beating Arsenal 5-2.
But Kelly is adamant Everton can take the game to them in Widnes. “It will be a great game,” she added. “We’ll show fight because we haven’t won yet so we’ll be up for the game as City will be. We know we are the underdogs but if we can take that second half performance [against Birmingham] into this one then I don’t see why we can’t break City down.
“They’re a great team but defensively we have shown we are solid and hard to beat. Going forward, if we take our chances then I think it will be a great game.
“Everyone is ready to play the biggest teams. We can’t shy away from them and we want to show what we can do against the bigger teams. There’s no point doing it in WSL 2 if we can’t do it in WSL1. We have to show we are ready for this league and why not? Why can’t we play our football against City?”
