Belles head coach Zoey Shaw believes Sunday’s 4-1 pre-season friendly defeat to Burnley can provide her side with a real learning curve.
The Belles took the lead during the first half in Padiham, however four goals without reply from the third tier Clarets saw the hosts run out winners, however Shaw was pleased with what her side could take away from the game.
“We aren’t really too bothered about the result to be honest, at this stage, building connections and working on fitness are the main aims, a win would be nice of course, but we’ve managed to get a goal from a set play which we’re happy about,” she said.
“It’s a learning curve for us, when you come up against sides like Burnley, you’re always going to learn new lessons, we got that the hard way with a couple goals, but it’s good to get those out of the way early.
“We haven’t really touched on set pieces much, it’s been more about the tactics and getting them sorted, but for a new player in Chloe Starling to score like that, it’ll really give everyone a lot of confidence too.”
The Belles now move on to face FA Women’s Championship newcomers London City Lionesses in a launch event pre-season friendly at St George’s Park on Tuesday, and Shaw reckons it’ll be a fantastic experience for her side.
“It’s a great opportunity for the girls coming up now, just for them to be up against that calibre of player, and in a great environment such as St George’s Park, I’ve got an idea of what I want to get out of the game, but we want them to enjoy it,” she added.
“We’re just happy to get plenty of minutes into all the girls, we’re getting a lot of them involved now and it’ll be good for us to get everyone on the pitch and get their fitness up, but it’ll be such a good experience for them all too.
“We just have to keep everyone’s tank topped up, we want to be able to share the minutes equally to lighten up the load in training, we want to be able to see where players are best off within a system and fit them in where we can.”