LEE Burch praised his Rugby Borough Women players for rising to the challenge in their late FA Cup fifth round defeat against Women’s Super League (WSL) side Liverpool.
Rugby conceded two late goals in a 2-0 defeat against the WSL side but fought valiantly throughout in front of a sell-out crowd at Kilsby Lane.
And after pushing Liverpool all the way, Burch praised his players for adapting to an underdog mentality against a side who play two divisions above them.
Burch said: “It was a good performance, the players had a clear gameplan to stick to and to take through the 90 minutes.
“We were very close to executing that to perfection, it was a new challenge for the players to be the clear underdogs against a really top side.
“The players managed to meet the challenge quite well.
“It wasn’t a case of 100 shots and wave after wave of relentless and really strong attacks, it was putting them into positions where they didn’t want to be.
“Our out of possession game was good, we had a clear counter-attacking threat, it was a good 84 minutes but they had that quality to open us up eventually.”
Substitutes Marie Hobinger and Mia Enderby struck late on for the visitors with Burch’s side the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.
Liverpool eventually broke Rugby’s resistance when Hobinger curled a shot into the left corner of the goal from 25-yards out with six minutes left to play.
And as Borough searched for an equaliser, the Reds sealed their place in the next round as Enderby lashed a first time shot past the onrushing Nyla Peterkin from Hobinger’s pass in injury time.
