"I'm really proud of the players because they've done what we asked; they've worked their socks off"
Charlotte Healy wants Bristol City Women to "take the positives" from their performance against Tottenham Hotspur, despite the Robins' heavy defeat to the WSL side.
The Reds slipped to their second loss of the Subway Players Cup campaign as they were beaten 6-1 by Spurs on Wednesday evening. At the High Performance Centre, a Shekiera Martinez hat-trick, as well as goals from Olivia Holdt, Signe Gaupest and Matilda Nilden, ensured Rio Hardy's first-half strike was little more than a consolation.
Martinez struck twice in the opening 24 minutes, first with a delicate chip and then with a close-range finish, after Holdt had doubled the visitors' advantage. After Gaupest stretched the lead to four on 41 minutes, Hardy's right-footed strike gave City a lifeline before the break.
Ultimately, the Reds weren't able to kickstart a comeback, as Nilden and Martinez both got the better of Lauren Brzykcy after the restart. Though Healy was far from pleased with the scoreline, she was happy with the way her side went about this business and as underdogs.
"I think it's always difficult when you lose by that scoreline," the City boss told the club's media team after the final whistle. "I'm not silly; I know that, but I was actually really proud of a lot of elements of our play tonight.
"Look, we could sit in a 5-4-1, sit in and not compete with Tottenham, but I wanted us to show parts of us tonight. I wanted us to try and play; I wanted us to be aggressive out of possession; I wanted us to make it hard for them, and I thought we did that a lot.
"I thought we started the game brilliantly, and the reality is we should be 2-0 up before they even score the goal. I thought we created a lot tonight and we're disappointed that we've not been more ruthless. I think when you're up against a team of the quality and the individual quality that Tottenham have - you see it in some of the goals they score tonight, they're world class - the gap is huge.
"I can't ask anymore of the players tonight; they've done everything we've asked them to do, and they've applied what we've wanted them to do in large spells of the game, but against teams of this quality, if you're a little bit loose, you get punished.
"That happened to us a couple of times tonight."
Wednesday evening's defeat to Spurs leaves City sitting 17th in the Subway Players Cup table after three matches. At the time of writing, the Robins' margin to eighth-placed Liverpool and the qualification places stands at nine places, but just four points.
The Reds' next chance to close that gap comes this weekend, when they will travel to Shropshire to face Wolverhampton Wanderers - who they recently got the better of in the league - on Sunday afternoon.
"I think we have to just continue to build," Healy explained. "As I said, we wanted to make sure that we used this game as an opportunity to continue to build on what we've been doing. Wolves is another chance for us to do that.
"I think there were elements of the game - whilst I understand the scoreline and I never like losing, at the best of times, never mind by that scoreline - but we have to be realistic in the difference between the two teams and take the positives, because there were a lot of them tonight.
"As I said, I'm really proud of the players because they've done what we asked, they've worked their socks off, and they've been rewarded with the chances they've created by doing that.
"That's a real positive for us tonight; we have to continue to build from that, continue to evolve and continue to make sure we get better."