Nadim’s goal was the Blues’ first of five in an entertaining seven-goal clash away at Adams Park in our first Super League match of 2018.
The Danish forward headed home Nikita Parris’ pinpoint cross to help her new Club to maintain a 100% record in the 2017/18 campaign with a 15th consecutive win.
The manager was naturally delighted.
“When you sign players you want them to hit the ground running and gain some momentum,” Cushing explained.
“For a striker to score at the start of the game, it gave Nadia a lot of confidence and I thought she was excellent against Reading.
“To have only been training for four days it showed a real class in the way she played and fitted into our team.”
It wasn’t just Nadia that the manager was impressed by, as he reflected on the team’s performance as a whole as he believes the current squad is the most competitive it’s ever been.
“I’m really pleased with the win,” Nick added. “I think when we go to Adams Park, there’s always been crazy games.
“I thought in the first 20 minutes, we were really good on the attack but we weren’t getting a hold of the build up.
“Once we got that and starting using the space a bit more, we really started to control the game and in the second half, we were comfortable.
“All we want to do is challenge the team every day and the standards are high here – we’ve probably got the most competitive squad we’ve ever had now.
“We’ve got really high standards and we want to continue to perform well and if that breeds wins then it does, but performance is really key for us and today we were a bit patchy in the first half but dominant in the second.”
Cushing and his squad will now look ahead to next weekend’s match as we travel down south to face Chelsea in the semi-final of the Continental Tyres Cup on Sunday 14 January, kick-off at 2pm (GMT).
