Arsenal Reaction

1 June 2012

Arsenal Reaction

After the Vixen's 3-0 defeat to Arsenal manager Mark Sampson spoke to bristolacademywfc.co.uk to share his thoughts on the evening's events.

"It was a frustrating night after we started well in the first 15 minutes. But we were affected in a big way with the loss of Alex and then the manner of the first goal. It was clear Jess had an injury which needed urgent attention and the officials should have identified that and stopped the game. You could see the incident affected our performance and against a side like Arsenal it allowed them to play more freely and credit to them they really showed their quality. You don’t make consecutive Champions League semi-final’s without being an exceptional team and tonight we came up against an Arsenal side on top form. For our young players this is a real tough moment but in the future will become an invaluable experience.

As I said in the first 15 minutes I felt we showed great responsibility and showed our qualities. We were positive, keeping possession of the ball to subdue the threat from Arsenal which gave us the opportunity to grow into the match and I felt just before Alex was forced off we were starting to do that. When we lost Alex though we lost some balance, we found it difficult to keep possession and Arsenal really punished us with some quick counter attacks. But it is very early days for this group and we are working on many things which will take time to bed in, we can get a lot out of this experience tonight. Obviously it is not a result you want but we can take a lot from the game for us to work on. On the journey we are on there have had setbacks but any setback we have experienced has always acted as a tool to help us grow, we will do that again and use the lessons we have learnt tonight to help us move forward.

For lots of our players tonight was their first experience of everything that comes with a big match; crowd, television, pressure and they will learn lots from the experience. We have a group with fantastic potential and they will regroup, learn the lessons and work very hard to use tonight’s experience to become stronger both individually and collectively."

The match was watched in the stadium by over 1,000 spectators which was the second highest crowd so far in the FA WSL this season. The manager accepted people will be disappointed with the result but was delighted with the number of supporters that turned out.

"The supporters were incredible, to see over 1,000 people in the ground was a magnificent sight. Every supporter who came through the turnstile tonight really played their part in helping portray our club in a fantastic light to many, many people. The work that went on behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly was fantastic; it was a real club effort to put on such a fantastic event. I am only sorry we didn’t give everyone much to cheer about tonight; we wanted to, we tried our best to but it just was not our night. We have had a setback tonight but have no doubt this team, this club is moving frimly forward."

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