Skinner: Take the hit and refocus

The Reds headed to Prenton Park on Sunday afternoon for a clash of fourth versus fifth in the WSL, with our Merseyside counterparts ultimately leapfrogging us in the league standings, thanks to Jenna Clark’s header in a 1-0 defeat.

With a Women's FA Cup final now on the horizon and an Old Trafford showdown against Chelsea to follow thereafter, Skinner believes the setback could prove useful for his players to re-energise and refocus for our crucial games ahead.

“Sometimes it's a good thing – barring the result, obviously it's a negative,” Skinner said in his post-match interview with MUTV.

“But to take a hit right now to refocus us and go right to two really big games, one-at-a-time focus, I think that can be good for us going into this final to really get our energy, really get after Tottenham in the final.

“We obviously wanted to win the game. We haven't, but we had chances to, and those are key chances, too. That's where we'll learn and we then put that into practice, so we punish those in the final next week and then we go into the Chelsea game and we do the same.

“They'll hurt after that result and they'll get that and put that right and they'll be ready to go into this, this final, full everything, full energy, full commitment, and let's see what happens.”

"I think a real focus from our players. They'll hurt after the result and they'll get them put that right and they'll be ready to go into this, this final, as I say, full everything, full energy, full commitment and let's see what happens."

The result on Merseyside was one of frustration, of course, but it wasn’t a United performance without opportunities to get on the scoresheet ourselves.

There were presentable openings for Leah Galton and Millie Turner in the opening moments, with Ella Toone going close later in the first half, before Melvine Malard was denied by an expert Teagan Micah save in the dying moments of the second.

“These are chances that are falling within the penalty area that we should score,” he continued. “I think that's the key. And then switching off from one set-piece and it wasn't structural. It was an individual moment where we switched off.

“It was a bit of an anti-football game. Both teams were hooking it on and playing it long and it's not a possession based football and we lost out on that today.”

Skinner is confident that the Reds can put things right against Tottenham, when we'll be hoping to lift the Women's FA Cup for the first time at Wembley.

“I don't feel that that's something to overanalyse. I think that we know what's coming ahead. We know that it's going to be a totally different game, and that we have to prepare the best we can for that.

“From our perspective, we'll be disappointed because we've had chances in that game to go up and I know that the game will be a different one if you take those chances. It's something we'll fix going into the next two games.”