An incredible 44,259 supporters witnessed a pulsating 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium, beating the Club’s previous highest attendance for a women’s match by over 13,000.
Laura Coombs’ second half header earned the hosts a share of the spoils, keeping us within touching distance of the WSL top three.
Result aside, Taylor believes both sides produced a brilliant advert for women’s football.
“Today was a bit of a flagship moment, we had it previously in 2019 but you can see the interest that this game drew up,” he said.
“We’ll reflect and see if it was a success, and then if it has we’ll look to do it more often.
“We’ve seen it more in the south with Chelsea using their venue, Arsenal and Tottenham. For us it’s great and a real step forward. Hopefully everyone sees it as a real success.
“I think [playing at the Etihad more regularly] would help. You’d see hopefully a more normal type of performances than maybe what we saw in the first half because it was completely new.
“The pitch dimensions are the same as the CFA but it looks and feels bigger, bigger stadium and crowd, spaces look massive for both teams.
“I believe if we’re able to use this as a venue more often we’ll do amazing, especially the way we played and the method we use, it’d help us a lot.
“First half was a bit new to us, we tried to acclimatise as best we could. We couldn’t train here yesterday due to the weather conditions.
“It was brilliant to see all the supporters, I think it was a real step forward and both teams gave a really good account of themselves.”
It would be fair to describe the latest Manchester derby as a game of two halves, with the visitors edging the first 45 and City the better after the break.
And while Taylor agreed that his side were much improved in the second half, he insisted that both teams deserve tremendous credit for how they responded to a ‘cup final’ atmosphere.
He reflected: “We were a bit off it in our pressing and needed to refine a few things and in our build-up play.
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“[But] it’s so difficult to be critical of both teams today.
“It’s a new environment, a lot of the United players haven’t played here previously, and lot of ours haven’t been here previously.
“It felt like a bit of a one off, like a cup final today and certainly with the crowd a completely different game and not a WSL one.
“The energy and the effort and quality were of a really good level, hopefully it’s been a good advertisement for women’s football.”
