Claire Ditchburn wants to see Durham Women take the lessons from their FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup defeat at Aston Villa.
England international Rachel Daly netted a second half hat-trick for the top tier side, as goals from Adriana Leon and Rachel Corsie wrapped-up their 5-1 win – with Amy Andrews’ well-taken goal only a consolation.
But despite the scoreline, Ditchburn was pleased with elements of the performance – particularly in a goalless first half – and wants to see her side use the experience to their benefit moving forward.
“It’s obviously a difficult score to take,” said the Head Coach.
“We came here to compete and in the first half we did that really. We went in at half-time and had given ourselves a really good platform to build on.
“Unfortunately, we concede early in the second half and we’re always having to chase a little bit from there and we perhaps just for a short spell left ourselves open and lost our shape.
“Aston Villa have the quality players to punish you and they did that.
“It’s a disappointing scoreline, but there’s a lot we have to look at from the overall picture of the game – there’s a lot we can learn from but a lot we can be happy with, particularly from the first half.”
Expanding more on the lessons Durham can take from the game, Ditchburn said: “We’ve got a lot of young players in the team and it was great for them to be able to play against such a high calibre team.
“Hopefully they’ll get confidence from knowing that they can compete with them and create chances, but then we need to learn that it’s being clinical when we get those opportunities.
“Equally, a lapse of concentration and you will be punished.
“I think at one point they were bringing on two England internationals and a French international – but this is where we strive to be,” she added.
“I think all of the girls want to play against this calibre of player and prove themselves, but also learn from playing against top, top players.
“That’s what we will take from it.”
Durham now have a quick turnaround ahead of the visit of Southampton to Maiden Castle on Sunday.
And Ditchburn insists the side will be ready for their final game of 2023.
“We’ll be ready for Southampton on Sunday and we’re looking forward to it.
“It’s the last home game before the break so I’m sure we’ll have picked ourselves up – and we’re definitely looking forward to it.”
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