Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor has praised his side's response to their defeat against Manchester United last time out in the Barclays Women's Super League (WSL).
On Sunday, the Cityzens were beaten by their bitter rivals in a six-goal thriller at the Etihad Stadium. Despite goals from Vivianne Miedema and January signing Rebecca Knaak, a hat-trick from Ella Toone and a first-half strike from Leah Galton resulted in a 4-2 defeat for the hosts.
The loss resulted in town rapidly falling in the rankings and fourth behind united, Arsenal AND Chelsea. They are now two points clear of third and second, but nine points behind league leaders Chelsea with 11 games played.
Despite the setback, City responded in emphatic fashion in midweek against United in the Women's Subway League Cup. They overcame the quarter-final clash 2-1 at Leigh Sports Village to set up a semi-final meeting with Arsenal next month.
Speaking before this weekend WSL In the meeting at Aston Villa, Taylor praised his players' response to the defeat and their determination to put things right just three days later.
“This team has always shown that we fight until the end,” the manager told reporters during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “We always fight when we have suffered.
“We tend not to let it affect us. Sure, it hurts, but we don't let it affect us too much. This was a perfect game for us, playing our rivals again after Sunday and getting some results.
“I thought there was real determination from the players in that sense, especially the way we closed the game. We did really well.”
City have a golden opportunity to close the gap on their rivals this weekend with Arsenal and Chelsea set to face each other at Stamford Bridge. United are also in action against Brighton on Sunday, who currently sit fifth in the table after a strong first half of the season.
Taylor stressed the importance of City getting back to winning ways in the league as they look to capitalize on potential drop points elsewhere.
“We have to do it,” he added. “We have to really fight in this next WSL game and playing Villa at Villa is very difficult. The schedule has not been very kind to us, the only game being played on Saturday is between us and Villa. They haven't played in midweek. We also have injury problems, which are testing the squad a bit.
“I liked what I saw last night in terms of determination and the ability to fight and compete against physical players.”