Looking to bounce back from our disappointing result in the north London derby before the international break, we made a strong start at Brisbane Road, with Ella Morris going close with a fierce left-footed strike, but, against the run of play, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock thanks to Vivianne Miedema after 11 minutes.

However, our spirit wasn’t damped from going behind, as we showed great character to get back on level terms just after the half hour mark, with Bethany England grabbing her eighth goal of the campaign.

Both sides created further chances after the break – Matilda Vinberg had a massive one-on-one opportunity while Ashleigh Neville produced a fantastic acrobatic clearance off the line to deny the visitors.

But a moment of quality from Aoba Fujino in the final quarter-of-an-hour of the game restored the Citizen’s lead and, with the last kick of the game, Ayaka Yamashita denied England from close range to see our brave performance come unrewarded in the end.

We could have had at least one point and, for me, that’s one step forward from the Arsenal game, but we’re not happy yet.

We need to make sure we can compete and take points from these games.

“Mixed emotions,” Robert told SPURSPLAY after the game. “I’m very frustrated that we lost this game, it was a tough game, but we actually had some really good moments, so it’s tough to lose.

“But, in one way, the performance is so much better than the Arsenal game, the players are buying into it, they are defending, pressing and creating chances,

I think we had around 13 chances against them, obviously they had more of the possession, we knew that, but I think the performance and how the players acted, it was brilliant. It was just very frustrating to lose.”

Robert on the character from his players to respond after the early setback…

“The first 10 minutes was really good, we were in their half, creating chances, and then they scored with their first chance, we have practiced against that, but they scored because of their quality.

But, to come back, score that goal and get back into the game and create chances, in the second half, we had a few really good opportunities, but they have some top players and they found that goal to make it 2-1.”

Robert on not being clinical with our opportunities…

“We had our chances,I think we had a better XG than them as well, obviously they also had a good few opportunities and Lize [Kop] was amazing in goal, we competed with City and we could have had at least one point and, for me, that’s one step forward from the Arsenal game, but we’re not happy yet.

We need to make sure we can compete and take points from these games.”

Robert on players returning to the starting XI…

“It’s a big thing.

The squad we have now and what we want to do with that, we needed competition, the players stepping up and they did that today. Charli [Grant] playing in a new role and did excellent as well,

Luana [Buhler] coming in, I think many players showed great quality they have, and for us to develop and close that gap, to compete, we need that.”

Robert on taking the positives…

“I think it’s going to be two weeks where we can work with the whole squad together, in and out of possession, we want to go into that Brighton game with the fans and make sure we score a lot of goals and start winning games again because we have lost a few in a row against top teams, but it’s now to take the next step.”