‘It’s just a start’ – Birmingham City must move on after stunning opening day win says Merricks | OneFootball

Birmingham City head coach Amy Merricks says that the team have to move on from last weekend’s stunning 5-0 victory against Sunderland.

The Blues kicked-off the new Barclays Women’s Championship campaign with the best possible start, demolishing a Sunderland side that went close to winning the league title last season.

The victory was a real statement of intent from Birmingham City but head coach Merricks says that it is important to remember that it’s only one performance and that the focus now shifts to Sunday’s trip to Bristol City.

“It was a brilliant start but it’s just a start,” Merricks said when speaking in the pre-match press conference.

“My message to the group this week was that you’re only as good as your next training session. What’s really exciting is that there’s much more to come from this group.

“We worked really hard over the summer and it showed in that performance. It’s about moving forward and building on that now.”

Commenting on the threat of Bristol City, Merricks is expecting a tough test for her side despite the fact that The Robins are still in the process of recruiting a new permenant head coach following former boss Lauren Smith’s recent departure.

She said “They’re definitely a strong side and they have had a year of WSL experience behind them which is significant having been there myself and experienced that. We can’t take that for granted.

“I’ve got to credit Loren Dykes, she’s doing an incredible job because being interim [head coach] isn’t easy. You could see that in their performance.

“We are expecting a real challenge this weekend but we have to make sure that we focus on playing with intent firstly and focus on our performance.”

Four different players got their names on the scoresheet for Birmingham City against Sunderland last weekend and Merricks says that while it was a real positive, the team have to look towards their next game.

She said “It’s a team game and we are going to need that going forward. That’s just a reflection of the team playing as a team. We’ve got to keep pushing on that.

“I’ve got to keep saying it; it’s only a start. That was six days ago and we’ve moved on from that now and our focus is on this weekend. We take the positives from it and we have to build.”

Birmingham City’s Barclays Women’s Championship fixture at Bristol City kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.