Wolves Women manager Dan McNamara was happy with his team’s reaction after last weekend’s defeat at Stoke City, as they scored five goals against AFC Fylde.
Destiney Toussaint stole the show with a first-half hat-trick, while McNamara complimented goalkeeper Bec Thomas, who replaced Shan Turner in the starting lineup and made a critical stop on her way to maintaining a clean sheet. Prior to the game, both sides observed a minute’s silence in memory of Maddy Cusack, who died unexpectedly last week, with McNamara sending his condolences in the wake of the awful news.
In remembrance of Maddy Cusack
“It’s been difficult. Condolences to everyone who knew Maddy – her friends and family. It’s been a difficult week for women’s football.
“We have a few girls who have been greatly affected by what has happened.” It’s incredible to see the football community come together to grieve such a tragic loss.”
Upon receiving a response
“We discussed a reaction before the game, and the girls understood we wanted one. We weren’t delighted with the performance, despite the fact that we made things difficult for ourselves at Stoke last week by only having 10 players after half an hour.
“I thought we were great today.” We saw that passion, that genuine desire and tempo in everything we did in the first half.
“I’m really pleased with the way we executed the game plan. Today they’ve gone out and executed what we knew the weaknesses would be for Fylde and I think we exploited them really well in that counter attacking and counter pressing phase in the first half.
“I’m delighted for the girls and it’s fantastic to get the good feeling back amongst the girls.”
On the performance of Bec Thomas in goal
“I went straight over to Bec at half-time. It’s the small things that people don’t often see – at 2-0 she’s made an unbelievable save.
“We talk about momentum a lot and trying to control momentum. If that goes in, it’s 2-1 and all of a sudden we see a different Fylde.
“I’m delighted for her coming in. Bec’s one of those – she shouldn’t be sat on the bench at tier three, she should be playing week in week out.
“She’s been outstanding when called upon. Shan’s (Turner) obviously away representing her country, so Bec has stepped in and kept a clean sheet.
“She deserved that because of her performance. I thought she was excellent with her footwork, but the save at that crucial moment in the game was key.”
On playing Nottingham Forest in the League Cup next
“We want to play the best teams and Forest are up there with probably the best in tier three at the minute – the players they’ve brought in and what they’re doing as a football club.
“We want to be testing ourselves against players of that nature and clubs of that ilk.
“We’re really looking forward to it. It will be a tough week and I’m sure the girls will be full of confidence after today, but we know it’s going to be a completely different challenge, especially away from home.
“There will be loads of rotation. We’ve got players who deserve to be on the pitch after recent performances, so we’ll be getting them on the pitch but ultimately we want to go as deep as we can in all the cup competitions. Hopefully we can do that next week and come away with a positive result.”
