After five games without a win, Everton finally picked up a Women's Super League victory on Sunday - and manager Willie Kirk has urged his players to maintain that momentum when they face Birmingham City on Wednesday evening.
The Blues crushed bottom side Bristol City 4-0 at the weekend, with goals from Izzy Christiansen (2), Simone Magill and Megan Finnigan - much more like the form they showed at the start of the season, when they were challenging for a Champions League place and made the FA Cup final.
And the Everton boss wants his players to keep up that push for a spot in the top three as they sit six points behind third-placed Arsenal with a game in hand.
“We certainly needed that win,” admitted Kirk. “It was really important if we’re going to propel ourselves back into the running for those top spots and we’ve got a good chance to build on it now.
“I’d been reminded a few times that it had been a while since we’d won in the WSL. I think the fixture list was quite kind to us at the start of the season, and we felt the impact of playing Chelsea within a week of the FA Cup final.
“I think we were dealing with raised expectations - which is something we’ll learn from - and also one of our strengths at the start of the year was utilising the whole squad and keeping things fresh, but we picked up a few injuries.”
Most of the first-team squad are now available for selection again, with five players having recovered from Covid-19 and others including Valerie Gauvin and Rikke Sevecke finally returning from injury.
But Kirk confirmed he is hoping to strengthen it even further before the end of the transfer window.
“This transfer window perhaps hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would’ve liked for a few reasons," he said. "We’re now competing with the top teams for players, and players may be reluctant to move around during the pandemic, for example.
“But we’ve had real success in the last three windows, and we do expect to bring a couple in before the deadline, just to freshen things up more than anything else.”
Scotland international Claire Emslie is expected to be in Wednesday's squad to make her first appearance since signing for the club permanently.
