Everton Women manager Willie Kirk believes his side dodged a bullet in Thursday’s 4-0 victory over Birmingham, with the hosts unable to capitalise on their slow start at St George’s Park.
It wasn’t until ten minutes before the break that Jill Scott opened the scoring for the Toffees, who had goalkeeper Sandy MacIver taken off injured earlier in the game.
Alisha Lehmann then got on the scoresheet before the break to put the visitors into the ascendency, before a pair of eye-catching goals from Claire Emslie and Simone Magill rounded off the scoring after the interval,
The victory was the perfect way for Everton to respond after going down to Manchester City at the weekend, but Kirk believes his side struggled to get going before the opening goal went in.
"We found it hard to get our rhythm going before Sandy went off injured,” Kirk said.
“I thought it was a really poor start from us and we almost used that as a little warning and we tightened up at that point, but we still never really got the flow of our game going for a while.
“I thought the first goal was really good, really well worked down the right, but apart from that bit of quality, that was the first bit of quality that we'd really showed.”
The Toffees opened the scoring in Thursday night’s affair through Lionesses star Scott, as she calmly converted Hayley Raso’s cross past Hannah Hampton into the bottom corner.
Lehmann doubled Everton's lead with a close-range header just before the break, as the Swiss star claimed her first goal for the club since making the move from West Ham in January.
The visitors turned on the style in the second half, as they produced two goals out of the top drawer to round off the scoring, with Emslie producing a sumptuous lob for the third before Magill’s late stunner made sure the game ended in style.
The victory leaves Everton just four points from the top four ahead of the weekend’s action, and Kirk believes the performance after the break was much-improved.
“I’m glad Birmingham never punished us for the slow start that we had, but I think after the first goal we got on top and we were dominant for the majority of the game,” the Toffees boss said.
“In that middle part of the game, either side of half-time, we probably did enough and then in the second half, we were professional, even though there were still areas where I thought we could improve.”
