Spurs 2-3 Liverpool (WSL) | Robert's verdict | OneFootball

Robert Vilahamn admitted it was ‘tough’ to lose to Liverpool in that fashion after fighting back on two occasions and was full of praise for supporters at Brisbane Road.

We were put on the back foot in the early stages in our Barclays Women’s Super League encounter when Cornelia Kapocs’ effort from distance found the back of the net on 10 minutes and, ultimately, we struggled to carve out many opportunities.

The second half was a completely different story as we quickly found an equaliser – Jess Naz’s cross turned into her own net by Taylor Hinds – and that sprung us into life, with Martha Thomas being denied by Rachael Laws shortly after. However, a moment of quality from Marie Hobinger, who curled a free-kick into the top right corner, put the visitors back ahead once again in the final quarter of the game.

With seven minutes left on the clock, we brought the scores level once again as Clare Hunt’s strike ricocheted off Gemma Bonner and past Laws for her first goal for the Club but, deep into injury-time, Liverpool were awarded a penalty and Hobinger converted from the spot to hand us our first defeat of the season.

“I think the first half was a little tough for us, Liverpool came in with a lot of fight and energy and we tried to get a game plan for that, but then they got an easy goal at the beginning which affected that,” Robert told SPURSPLAY.

“But in the second half, after we made a few changes tactically, we had a better half, better character, the players stepped up and created some really good chances, we scored two goals and we went for the 3-2 but then they had a counter-attack and a penalty… it’s always tough to lose in the end.”

Asked about the supporters, he added: “They are living with us in the game, I feel the passion they have and that becomes really passionate football. The second half was a great atmosphere, it’s a great moment to see how we connect with the fans, but we also need to learn how to lose together because we will lose games, and sometimes because we are poor and sometimes because the opponent is really clever, but we need to go through that and find ways to get better.

“When we had it at 2-2, we were not going to stand back and protect the one point, we aren’t that kind of team. The fans don’t want us to do that, Tottenham doesn’t want us to do that, we wanted to go for the win.”

Robert went on to explain what the players can take from the game ahead of next weekend’s trip to Manchester United (12.30pm UK).

“I think when you see the character from the second half and how we took the fight to them, found ways to penetrate them to score goals and create chances, that’s what we need against Man Utd,” he added.

“They have started their season very well, they’re a very good team with a lot of good players, so it’s not going to be an easy game, but we need to go there and make sure we have a good mentality to defend and be good on the ball. It’s obviously going to be a difficult game, but we have beaten them in pre-season and we had a good game up there last season, so we know we can compete with them.”

Watch - Vilahamn's assessment on Liverpool defeat