Goals from Deyna Castellanos, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and an own goal saw us record the victory against the newly promoted Barclays Women’s Super League side as our pre-season preparations intensified.
It represented our first match since May’s 3-2 league win over Everton in our final assignment of 2022/23.
And the boss was encouraged by the patterns of play we exhibited on a sun-soaked Manchester afternoon against the Vixens.
“I was impressed with a lot of things I saw, particularly in the first half in terms of how we pressed and how we built,” he explained.
“[We] showed great composure and made good decisions. I think it was good to get minutes in the tank and to get some minutes on the pitch.
“There were some good things and promising signs and just reinforcing the positives is really important.
“I think in pre-season you want to see some things you’ve been working on and I think we definitely saw that.
“If you can capture those things like we did, that’s a positive. Pre-season is sometimes difficult to gauge. All in all, really pleased with what we got out of the game.”
Bristol City were crowned WSL Championship winners last term after they gained an impressive 48 points which saw them return to the top flight.
And their quality was reflected in the encounter with Lauren Smith’s side opening the scoring through Abi Harrison before Rachel Furness’ fine header reduced the deficit after we had earned a two-goal lead.
For Taylor, he believes the task of the Vixens side was perfect for this stage of pre-season.
He added: “You always have to play your competitors in pre-season if you really want a challenge, so it’s great.
“They played similar to how we thought they would which was the same as last season in how they build and engage.
“It was a good test. You prefer that to teams who put loads of bodies behind the ball and that’s difficult to break down sometimes.
“I thought it allowed us to play our game and when we were put under real pressure we had to do it really well.
“We’ve seen some things to excite us I think with this team and we’re probably missing eight or nine players today who are able to come back into this environment as well.”
