Gareth Taylor praises Man City’s response to WSL setback | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor has praised his team's response to their setback 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, an Ella Toone hat-trick and a first-half strike from Leah Galton resulted in a 4-2 loss for the hosts.

The defeat resulted in City plummeting down the standings and into fourth behind United, Arsenal and Chelsea. They are now two points off third and second, but a concerning nine points behind the league leaders Chelsea with 11 games played.

Despite the setback, City responded in emphatic fashion midweek against United in the Subway Women's League Cup. They edged the quarter-final clash 2-1 at Leigh Sports Village to set up a semi-final meeting with Arsenal next month.

Man City claimed victory in the Subway Women's League Cup / Jess Hornby/GettyImages

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s WSL meeting away at Aston Villa, Taylor praised his players' response to the defeat and their determination to put things right only 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 back when we've suffered.

"We tend not to let it affect us. Of course, 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 settling a few scores.

"I thought there was a real determination from the players in that sense, particularly in the way we closed the game out. 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 emphasised the importance of City getting back to winning ways in the league as they aim to capitalise on potential dropped 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 tough. The scheduling for us has not been very kind, the only game being played on Saturday is between us and Villa. They haven't played midweek, we have. We also have injury issues which is testing the squad a little bit.

"I liked what I saw last night in terms of the determination and being able to fight and compete against physical players."