Wolves Women beat West Brom Women 1-0 at Molineux.
Dan McNamara admits it ‘means the world’ for Wolves Women to beat rivals West Brom Women as he gave a brutally honest review of his team’s performance.
His promotion-chasing side put in a lacklustre first half display but improved in a dominant second 45 that was decided by Amber Hughes’ header.
McNamara raced down the Molineux touchline in celebration when the striker netted the winning goal and as he criticised the first half display, he gave equal praise to his side for their reaction.
“It means the world to everyone when you play against West Brom,” McNamara said.
“A few people commented on my reaction to the goal, but that's what it means. That's what it means to beat them.”
The head coach added: “I've got to admit, I'm an honest guy, and I thought that was terrible in the first half.
“I don't know what I disliked more, the 10k I did this morning or that first half performance and at half-time I was quite stern with them.
“That wasn't good enough. That didn't deserve this platform. That didn't deserve the 2,500 fans that came.
“I've got to give credit to the girls, I thought they responded and showed a lot of character. The second-half performance, was it perfect? Absolutely not, but what a group, because they'll always find a way.
”They've done that again against a really resilient West Brom team. They look like a team that are desperate to end this record, I think that stretches it to seven years since we’ve lost to them in the league, which is a phenomenal record.
”Credit to West Brom, I thought they made it really difficult for us, but I don't think we made it any less difficult for ourselves with a really under-par performance.
”Three points is all that matters at this stage of the season, and we've managed to do that.”
Amber Hughesplaceholder image
Amber Hughes | Getty
Anna Morphet’s stunning cross set up Hughes for the winning moment, as Wolves chase down league leaders Burnley for a shot at promotion to the second tier.
“She's unplayable at times,” McNamara said of Wolves’ goalscorer.
“I thought they dealt with her really well, but you give her one chance and she'll score and that's why she's up there with the finest people and the finest player that I've worked with.
“She's made a difference again. Look away from a goal. It's her work rate, it's her effort, it's her intensity, what she does.
“She doesn't stop, unbelievable again from Amber.
”Good teams find ways to win when they're not at their best and I thought that was exactly what we did.”
He added: ”Me and the staff and look at that and I thought there were moments that we got wrong, we'll hold our hands up and say that.
“But the way in which we play, high and intense, and we've got to trust our defenders to play one-v-one at the back. We'll always concede opportunities and West Brom looked lively on the break.
“But we got another clean sheet and another win. It’s fantastic and I’m delighted for the girls.”
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