Kelly earned her first minutes of the 2021/22 campaign in Saturday’s FA Women’s Super League win at West Ham, introduced from the bench for the final half an hour at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
Greenwood, who wore the captain’s armband, was delighted to see her forward counterpart make her comeback, tipping the 24-year-old to rekindle the form that earned last season’s Etihad Player of the Year award.
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“I’m really proud of Chloe,” Greenwood said. “She’s put in so much hard work behind-the-scenes to get to this moment.
“I asked her how she was and she said she felt nervous coming on.
“Give her some time and she’ll be back to her best. She’s an unbelievable player with a fantastic future.”
March’s league Player of the Month nominee Greenwood produced a Player of the Match display in Dagenham, leading by example and contributing in all areas of the pitch – her distribution in particular catching the eye.
The triumph extended City’s impressive winning streak and run of clean sheets and the centre-back asserted there is still more to come from Gareth Taylor’s side.
“We got the win and a clean sheet but we’re a little disappointed with some areas of our play,” she reflected.
“We’ll look at it, review it and get ready to come back in two weeks [for the FA Cup semi-final trip to West Ham].
“We just have to take it game by game. I know that’s the answer everyone gives but it’s what we stick by and what we will stick by going forward.
“There’s an international break coming up but for the last couple of weeks, it’s been really good and positive.
“[In terms of how we play] it just depends on the opposition – how they set up. We looked at what they did and areas we could put the ball into.
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“One of the qualities of our team is that we can get in behind. [As defenders] we have to try and put it on a plate for the girls going forward.
“We’ve always believed we were good enough [to turn the season around]. The situation with injuries was what it was and there was nothing we could have done about it.
“We stuck together and that’s shown in our performances. It takes time.
“Confidence is massive and that’s something we have a lot of at the moment.”
