Marc Skinner has had his say on Manchester United Women’s narrow 0-1 defeat in the first leg of Champions League qualifying versus SK Brann.
The Red Devils dominated the chances and can consider themselves unlucky to have lost the game.
Nonetheless, United will need to win the match by two goals to progress next week but their manager Skinner was in bullish mood after the match.
The better team
Speaking to the club’s official website after the game Skinner asserted, “well, we were the better team but we didn’t win the game. We lose on a set piece, something we just need to be more aggressive with in the box and attack. We have created chances but we just haven’t been clinical enough.”
The 42-year-old was also keen to stress that the tie was far from over. He added, “I’ll be very clear on this, it is half time. Brann are now celebrating like they have won the tie, let’s see when they come back to the Leigh Sports Village.”
Replaying the match back in his head he analysed that, “we need to defend that one situation a lot better but other than that Phallon (Tullis-Joyce) has had nothing to do and that’s European football. I have said this to the girls, don’t put shoulders down and use all this energy in this stadium against them next week.”
Skinner also added that his side were full of confidence despite the defeat and that the match was just one of those games where the breaks don’t fall for you.
Fans needed next week
The former Birmingham coach also called on the club’s supporters to come in their droves next Thursday to help his side get over the line.
He explained, “we have to return to Leigh Sports Village where we are going to need our fans to turn up in great numbers and support us and make it louder than it was in here tonight and then let’s see if Brann can deal with that pressure because you see at the end of the game that Brann are in the deepest of blocks. We need to put them into that early and be really, really clinical and if we do, then we will win the tie.”
Skinner elaborated, “I want to fill it (the stadium), let’s get this energy, let’s get our Manchester energy against an opponent in Europe. That’s going to be needed, in here that was their extra player tonight and if we can do the same, we will make sure we will get through that tie.”
Club captain Maya Le Tissier echoed Skinner’s thoughts that United still had a huge chance to progress next week.
Responding to whether the tie was over or not she retorted, “yeah, definitely not at all. We’ve got a big leg at Leigh, it’s going to be exciting. Yeah we are only one goal down and you know how many goals we can score at Leigh. We will make sure we go there with our fans and you know how good our record is there.”
The 23-year-old had a similar assessment of the match to her boss and claimed, “we controlled the game, came close on a couple of chances and then they scored from a set piece. When we go to Leigh, hopefully they won’t know what has hit them. It’s really important (to get fans behind them) but with our spirit, only 1-0 down, of course it was a great atmosphere tonight, we are used to playing in these massive games.”
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
