‘It’s a point on the board’ – Palmer reacts to Southampton’s draw with Bristol City | OneFootball

Midfielder Aimee Palmer was disappointed that Southampton were unable to record a victory over Bristol City on the opening day of the new Barclays Women’s Championship season but said that the team will take away the positives.

Palmer netted a debut goal for The Saints as they battled out a hard-fought 1-1 draw with The Robins at St Mary’s Stadium on opening day. The midfielder fired Southampton ahead early in the second half but former Saint Lexi Lloyd-Smith levelled matters for Bristol City just after the hour.

When speaking to the media after the match, Palmer acknowledged the result as a positive but expressed her dissatisfaction with the team’s overall performance.

“We need to have a look at it and kind of move on, but it’s a point on the board, it’s better than nothing,” Palmer said.

“I think everyone always wants to play at their absolute top, first game of the season. I think I’m still lacking a bit of match sharpness, but hopefully that will come in the next few weeks.

“I’m obviously happy that we got a point, but we were looking for three. It’s disappointing, but we kind of look at the positives.”

Commenting on her debut goal, Palmer explained that she identified a weakness in the opposition goalkeeper’s position.

She said “I think everyone enjoys scoring goals. I spoke to Jem [Purfield] when I placed the ball down and we kind of looked at the goalie’s position and I thought I could potentially get a goal there.”

Palmer has experience of gaining promotion from the Barclays Women’s Championship with the player having won the league with Manchester United and Bristol City. She hopes to bring some of what she has learnt to Southampton.

She said “I’m still young, but I have a lot of experience. I’m hoping that I can kind of bring off the pitch stuff as well as on the pitch stuff to try and help.

“I know what it takes to win the league and I can already see that we’ve got a team that’s more than capable of doing it. It’s just about proving that we can. We’ve got the squad depth; you can bring any of those girls on [to do a job] and the togetherness in the team as well is second-to-none.

“It’s going to take a whole team, it’s not just the XI. It takes every single player within the squad, every single staff member.”

Southampton’s next Barclays Women’s Championship fixture at Sunderland takes place at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.