Brian Sorensen has urged his team to shake off the defeat to Manchester United and focus on Sunday, but the Blues boss has admitted that the performance was not one to be proud of.
Everton Women were beaten 7-0 at Leigh Sports Village in their second League Cup fixture and will welcome reigning champions Chelsea to Walton Hall Park this Sunday in the WSL.
With injuries and sickness still plaguing the side, Sorensen made five changes to the XI that drew with Tottenham last Sunday, including handing the armband to Aurora Galli in place of the absent Megan Finnigan.
Toni Duggan and Nicoline Sorensen both made starts but it made little difference as former Blue Nikita Parris continued to haunt her former employers, this time scoring a hattrick.
But despite the injuries and changes, the Blues boss didn’t hide behind excuses.
“It was really hard and it looked like they didn’t want to be on the pitch from the start,” he said. “We had to change a lot, there has been injuries and sickness which meant we were only playing with one centre back, Annie Wilding, who actually did ok considering what she was up against.
“It was how it ended; we were down 2-0 at half time and, fair play, they are a really good team and we needed to get through the game, but that didn’t happen.
Photo by Emma Simpson – Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images
“I said to the girls after the game that we need to shake it off, get in tomorrow and see how many we can get ready for Sunday.
“It wasn’t a performance to be proud of, that’s for sure!”
A reasonably competitive opening 25 minutes soon counted for nothing as the hosts scored in quick succession through Parris and Rachael Williams to give Marc Skinner’s side a half-time lead.
With Everton players struggling through injury, Hayley Ladd made it three before Parris completed her hattrick.
Substitute Geyse and Leah Galton rounded off the scoring in the final ten minutes as the Blues just wanted to get inside and regroup ahead of Sunday’s clash with Emma Hayes’ side.
The one glimmer of positivity for the Toffees was the sight of both Holmgaard twins on the pitch, both of whom completed around 30 minutes of play when introduced in the second half.
