A fourth win in five Women’s National League matches sent Oxford United Women to the top of the table on Sunday, although Manager Liam Gilbert won’t be getting carried away with the prospect of United sitting at the summit.
“That’s irrelevant from my point of view, in terms of where we are in the season. We’ve all had a mixed bag of results, everyone’s lost a game" he said.
“You want to win every game that you play in and that was priority one for us on Sunday. It’s brilliant to get a clean sheet, we’ve been very close to them in the last few games.We’ll just keep focusing as we always do and look at what could be better.”
Sophie Baker and Kayleigh Hines were both handed their first starts of the season on Sunday but the Manager was also impressed by the squad depth his side has on offer this year.
“This sets some foundations of what we can build upon; there’s some work we did in the week which the girls brought into the game today that was great to see. It was also brilliant to get some minutes into players who haven’t had 60 or 90 minutes for a little while and it shows the depth of squad which we’ve got.
“Now we’ll just keep focusing as we always do, we’ll prepare for Cardiff, we’ll work hard in training, we’ll analyse today’s game and we’ll look at what could be better.”
Following Hines’ Player of the Match performance, including a goal upon her return to the side, the midfielder commented on United’s “professional performance” at Tithe Farm.
“Obviously, the clean sheet was important, seven goals, we could’ve had a few more I think, but it was a professional performance" she said. "They posed a different challenge, but I thought that we dealt with it well.
“We work so hard on the way we play and our shape, and I think a lot of that came out today.”
Hines was also full of praise for Molly Peters following The U’s victory, where United’s striker extended her good form with a key role in the build-up to multiple goals on Sunday.
“Getting goals across the pitch is always a good thing. Molly today, I don’t know how many assists she got in the end, didn’t get a goal, but she played a crucial part in the goals for everyone else.”
Now attention turns to next Sunday’s home fixture where United welcome Cardiff to Court Place Farm in a bid to retain the National League’s top spot.
Tickets for this weekend’s highly anticipated game are already available to purchase online HERE.
Oxford United Season Ticket Holders and anyone who buys an iFollow pass for the men's game at Peterborough on Saturday can attend Sunday's game for FREE