Melissa Phillips was disappointed with Albion’s first-half display in Wednesday’s 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal in the WSL, but pleased with her team’s response after the break.
The Gunners, who moved into the Champions League positions with their victory, scored all their goals in the first half through Stina Blackstenius (2), Frida Maanum and Victoria Pelova in front of a record WSL crowd at the Broadfield Stadium of 4411.
“We will have time to reflect and digest this one,” said Phillips. “We got very stretched in the first half and I should have changed our shape earlier, when we went 2-0 down, to potentially clog up the midfield space and give us better options in transition.
“But we can take a lot of positives for the second half. In the past this team might not have given such a good account of themselves in that situation but we changed the momentum a bit in our favour and had some good chances to score.
“We'll look back on the first half and be disappointed but we can’t dwell on it too long. There are still two opportunities for us to put in really positive performances [against Everton and Leicester City]."
Maisie Symonds made her return after a season plagued by illness and injury as a second-half substitute.
“It was good to see Maisie Symonds back in the squad. She's a highlevel player who's had a hard time with injuries but when she came on I thought she did really well.
We haven’t made minor rotations from game to game so it was nice to see some players come on and make an impact from the bench in the second half,” added Phillips.