Taylor hails ‘complete’ striker Bunny Shaw after Leicester brace | OneFootball

Gareth Taylor has described Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw as a ‘complete’ striker after her brace in City’s 2-0 Barclays Women’s Super League win over Leicester.

The Jamaican broke the deadlock after two minutes at the Joie Stadium when directing an accurate Kerstin Casparij cross into the bottom corner from close range.

She then extended our advantage with a bullet header after Leila Ouahabi whipped a vicious ball into the area with just over 15 minutes of the first half remaining.

It raised her overall tally at the top of Club’s all-time goalscoring chart to 88 after 98 matches in all competitions and represented her 13th strike in 14 appearances this term.

And the Blues boss highlighted Bunny’s importance on and off the ball for City after our Foxes triumph.

“I once scored 16 in a season and the last once was the first that wasn't with my head. She won’t remember that,” he joked.

“I’d like to say I’ve helped her in that space, but I think that’s all down to Bunny.

“She arrives in the right moment. They were quite different in the sense that the first one she puts back where it comes almost and makes it difficult for the keeper and I think she controlled it well from Kerstin’s cross.

“The one from Leila is a little more where she gets across her defender and attacks it with power. For me, she’s a very complete striker, Bunny.

“I’ve mentioned more recently about what she gives us without her goals. Her goals are the cherry on the cake with so many opportunities to score.

“She backs that up with the numbers. The work she does without the ball is great and it allows us to dominate.”

There was further cause to celebrate in our success over Leicester as Academy starlet Eve O’Carroll made her senior debut.

Introduced in the 72nd minute when replacing Yui Hasegawa, she produced a mature performance at the Joie Stadium which helped us to a clean sheet and three points.

And Taylor believes she’s benefitting from her willingness to learn and from training with high-quality team-mates.

He added: “I thought her performance was very good. We’ve been working with her primarily as an attacking midfielder, but we had a situation today where we tried to relieve Yui.

“I think she could cope, but we don't often look to relive her. I thought Eve was good and her game understanding was good.

“The way she arrived and how she played her passes were good. The fact she’s just turned 18 tells you everything, she’s got a good opportunity from the players around her to learn and grow.

“She’s been with us a lot and she hadn’t had the opportunity to get some time on the pitch. Today will give her an awful lot of confidence.

“It speaks volume of what we’re doing in terms of it’s great having young players coming onto the pitch, which also shows how low we are and the injurie issues we have to key players which have given young players opportunities.

“Coming into the game at that moment is perfect really. The game seemed really in control.

“I spoke with the group at the end and praised the seniors for their help for the younger players because that can be really challenging.

“She has room to grow because she's really coachable. I think that’s the major thing.

“These players we have are all really coachable and they all want to improve. They're playing and training every day with top, top players and with world class players which will help them.”