Aberdeen Women co-boss Emma Hunter thinks her side’s fate was sealed by the 12th minute of their SWPL1 encounter with Motherwell after conceding three early goals.
The manner in which the Dons conceded Motherwell’s first three goals kicked off the disappointment in the Aberdeen dugout, with defensive errors and sloppiness to blame for the eventual 4-3 defeat.
Carla Boyce’s second goal, which capped off the women of steel’s first half flurry, could only have exacerbated the Reds’ frustration after being left with a feeling of déjà vu as she headed into an empty net after another goalkeeping error.
Co-boss Hunter believes her side will be left ruing mistakes which left them with a mountain to climb if they were to get anything out of the game and add to their SWPL1 points tally.
She said: “It’s massively disappointing and as a manager you go out at the start of the game with messages and a plan in your head, but, to go 3-0 down so early on, that gameplan went out the window.
“We have struggled with our game management, the ability to turn things around and not be so predictable with the ball. That’s what has hurt us the most.
“Unfortunately, we were punished with the mistakes that we made which led to three early goals and from that it was a really difficult game to get back into.
“As a manager you’re on the sidelines thinking what can we possibly do to get back into this game, it was always going to be a massive uphill struggle.”
Positives in defeat
Prior to the encounter, the Dons had failed to score in their previous four games against Rangers, Hibernian (twice) and Glasgow City.
However, the Reds managed to claw back three goals against Motherwell with Bayley Hutchison, Francesca Ogilvie and Johan Fraser all getting on the scoresheet for the first time in SWPL 1.
Despite her disappointment at the scoreline and the manner in which the first half played out, Hunter insists that Aberdeen’s resilience to not give up in front of goal is one of the positives to take from the 4-3 defeat.
She added: “If we look at our second-half performance and what we did manage to do to get back into the game and put Motherwell under pressure, that is what we know Aberdeen are capable of.
“We managed to score three goals, which is something we had lacked in previous games before Motherwell. Having Bayley (Hutchison) back and scoring again is a massive, massive plus for us.
“While we didn’t get the result we would’ve liked after being 3-0 down after only 12 minutes, to then put Motherwell under pressure where we were pushing for an equaliser in the last 15 minutes – the players deserve credit for that.”