Team celebrate

Reds reflect on win at Rangers

Friday 20 August 2021 10:18

Manchester United Women’s captain Katie Zelem says the team put in its best performance of pre-season so far during the 5-0 win over Rangers.

United overcame the Scottish Women’s Premier League outfit emphatically at the Rangers Training Centre in our third friendly of the summer on Thursday evening. 

Zelem was on the scoresheet twice, with Lucy Staniforth, Kirsty Hanson and Leah Galton all also netting in the win, as Marc Skinner’s side continue to build up the preparation prior to next month’s season kick-off. 

Rangers 0 United Women 5

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Five goals, a victory and more pre-season minutes in the legs for Marc Skinner's Reds!

With two weeks to go until our Women’s Super League opener against Reading on Friday 3 September, Zelem gave her thoughts on the team’s latest pre-season showing.

“[I’m] really pleased with the performance as a whole, I think that was our best one yet and you could see everything we’ve been working through with Marc is now coming into practice,” the skipper told MUTV’s Steve Bennett post-match.

“It’s really good [the way he wants us to play]. It’s like a different style of play, so we’re still adapting to it a bit, but I think as you can see, it does suit how we play, and we’ve got great players to carry out what he wants to do.”
The skipper scored a spectacular brace in the victory, opening the scoring with an eighth-minute free-kick before doubling her tally in the second half with a clever lob from range. 

The midfielder was one of four scorers for United in the game, something that she believes is a huge positive for the side going into the season. 

“We had four different goalscorers, usually top teams have goals coming from everywhere and we’ve certainly got that in this team, with usually not myself to be honest, but the girls up top!

“We know it’s a friendly, but you can see how happy we are with every goal we score - it’s building blocks for us, ready to come into the Reading game.

“We’re still building and working towards how we want to go into that, but I think we’re getting good wins under our belt and that’s all we really want going into the game.”
Another scorer for the Reds was Zelem’s fellow midfielder Staniforth, who netted United’s second of the game just before half-time with a perfectly placed finish. 

Our no.37 was also delighted to play her part in the win, by getting on the scoresheet. 

“I always want to contribute as much as I can towards the team, I’m happy with what I did but really happy with how we played. 

“We really dominated that second half and didn’t give them a sniff and that’s something we’re really looking to do in games like that; turn the screw and score more goals.”

The game rounded off a successful week-long training camp in Scotland for the team, who will now head back to England with a final friendly of the summer against Brighton & Hove Albion a week on Saturday (28 August) the focus, ahead of the new campaign starting six days later.

“It’s been a great camp to be fair,” Staniforth said. 

“We’ve had a great time and this game really summarises what we’ve been up to and there’s a camaraderie off the pitch so long may it continue. 

“Last year was difficult with COVID, we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together as a team so to come away and have a week together, get a lot of hard work in on the training pitch in but also have a lot of fun off it, is great. 

“People like me, Ona [Batlle] and Ivy [Ivana Fuso] who were new last year didn’t really get a chance to do this so it’s been wonderful.”

Support United Women from the stands in the upcoming campaign with season tickets available now. 

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