Gareth Taylor says he's proud of his depleted City squad despite defeat to Everton, and is confident they'll respond positively to the setback.
City came into the tie missing several key players, including captain Alex Greenwood and top scorer Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, who both suffered injuries during the week.
It meant that six of Taylor’s starting XI had featured three times in the space of a week, and Everton took advantage of that situation to claim a 2-1 win at Walton Hall Park.
But the boss was keen to praise his players’ efforts in difficult circumstances, and believes he’ll see a reaction in our final match of 2024 against Barcelona on Wednesday evening.
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He said: “It’s tough on the group because we’re obviously low on bodies as everyone’s aware and playing Thursday night was difficult.
“We probably had that in our performance and were a little bit flat.
“We’ll dust ourselves down. This team has done really well considering the amount of key players we’ve had missing throughout the season not just in these last few weeks.
“There’s a lot of good work that’s gone in, and we’ll bounce back.”
Hear Gareth’s thoughts in full via the video above...