“WE DON’T want to be on that coach on the way home coming back with nothing.”
That was the defiant message of goalkeeper Mary Earps as Reading seek their first league win of the season when they travel to Liverpool on Saturday.
After six weeks without a game, Royals returned to action last week, losing 3-1 to Arsenal in the Continental Cup.
But Earps feels the team can draw on plenty of positives from the campaign so far as they resume their WSL 1 campaign in the north west.
“We defended really well in the first half of the season,” Earps told The Wokingham Paper.
“We’ll be looking to do that again on Saturday against Liverpool.
“It’s a long away trip and we don’t want to be on that coach on the way home coming back with nothing.”
Liverpool come into the game on the back of victory in the Merseyside derby in the cup and also back-to-back draws with league leaders Manchester City.
And Earps is expecting a very tough test on the artificial pitch.
“It’s a 3G pitch in Widnes and no-one really enjoys playing on that pitch to be honest,” she admitted.
“Liverpool will be a decent side.
“They always are and they always put in decent performances and you can see that they’ve played Man City twice and come away with draws so you can’t underestimate teams like that.
“They’ll be looking to get a win against us to build on their performance last week but we’ve got to go in and put the Arsenal game aside and use this game to really push forward with our league campaign.”
Lois Roche column: Now Wales are gone I’d love to see Ronaldo win the Euros
Manager Kelly Chambers could hand debuts to Remi Allen and Sophie Perry in Widnes after they arrived from Birmingham City and Brighton respectively and she is expecting a tough battle against a new look Reds side.
But after getting 90 minutes under their belts against Arsenal, the manager believes her side are better placed this weekend.
“We have done well away so far,” Chambers told The Wokingham Paper.
“I think hopefully now we’ve had the Arsenal game after the break we can build going into the Liverpool game.
“I think if we tighten up on a few areas which we can do in training, which is a luxury I suppose of having everyone in full-time training now.
“We can tighten up on those areas and take something to Liverpool.”
She continued: “There’s quite a few new signings there.
“They’re just trying to build a strong squad which they’ve shown.
“They drew with Man City the other week so we know it’s going to be a tough test for us but we’ll relish the challenge and we’ll be ready for it.”
