Skinner: It's a strange feeling

Manchester City scored their first goal from a corner midway through the first half, while the second came from a cross, before Lauren Hemp scored a third from distance. The Reds had their own spells of dominance scattered throughout the contest, but were unable to find a way through.

"It's a strange feeling to have lost the game 3-0 and still feel that the opponent wasn't that far ahead of you," Skinner remarked in his post-match press conference.

Noting the crucial difference, he added: "They are deadly in the front line and they're very, very good. I think they've punished us with that."

"We're defending moments. Man City are always going to cross with Bunny [Shaw] in the box and they're going to have dangerous opportunities.

"You have to defend effectively and just on a couple of occasions, we let ourselves down. There are a few that we did okay with. We could play through City, which we did, but then in the final third, we just weren't aggressive enough."

'FACTORS WE'RE GETTING USED TO'

The challenge for United, with this game kicking off within 72 hours of our historic Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain at Old Trafford, is learning how to juggle the intense demands of playing high level opponents every few days.

Melvine Malard brought some fresh attacking energy off the bench in the second half, with the boss making full use of all five substitutions available.

"We put [Mel] on and it changes a little bit," Skinner said. "But the reality is, we have to rotate more now because this is a two-game, two-day turnaround. I had to protect the players in that moment

"After the PSG game, after the girls get back late [on Wednesday], they have the day off [on Thursday] and we have to walk through training [on Friday] because not everybody's able to even run. So, it's just these little factors that we're getting used to, you know, being the Champions League. I'm not going to moan about that. We've got to take that challenge on."

PHALLON, TOONEY & SIMI UPDATES

Providing the latest information on Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who had to sit out a second consecutive game, Skinner suggested it remains possible she could return against Wolfsburg on Wednesday.

"Phallon took a knock to the face [against Aston Villa], so we're just assessing. She wasn't ready for today," he explained. "We're going through some specialists at the minute. She should be fine. It's just obviously trying to make sure we don't get another knock in that area.

"She could be potentially back for Wolfsburg but we're just taking it day by day right now. But it shouldn't be too long [before she's back], to be honest."

Ella Toone received some lengthy treatment on the pitch just after the second half began for what Skinner called "a scrape down on Achilles".

But she was able to continue and there are no concerns, with her later withdrawal linked to a tactical change.

Simi Awujo, meanwhile, suffered a nasty clash of heads with City defender Jade Rose in stoppage time at the end of the game. Despite being left with a "golf ball" sized lump on her forehead that blew up before she'd even left the pitch, "right now, there's no concussion". The belief is she too could be okay by Wednesday.