Manchester United boss Marc Skinner referred to as for higher officiating within the Women’s Super League following two selections he believes price his facet three very important factors of their title chase.
Chelsea leapfrogged United and moved two factors clear on the prime of the desk with a 1-0 victory at Kingsmeadow due to Sam Kerr’s gorgeous seventh league objective of the season.
The United boss, nevertheless, prompt the outcome was finally determined not by the objective, however by what he felt had been a pair of penalties that weren’t awarded within the first half.
“I haven’t really mentioned much this season about it,” mentioned Skinner. “But they’re stonewall in my opinion. The reality is we have to invest, you have to invest in the officials, we have to make sure that they can have that.
“You have to invest in the surrounding technology that can help. You put a lot of energy, a lot of effort into the training in the week, how we’re trying to progress, you can see our progression as a team.
“We’ve come in here without fear. That’s different, that’s a different Manchester United, and when you need things to go your way, even if one of them, there are two stonewall, but if one of them goes our way it’s a different game.”
Skinner’s facet had been unbeaten on the street heading into the afternoon’s match-up and loved a 63 per cent possession benefit, whereas accidents and a bug spreading by means of the Chelsea camp had left Emma Hayes with a diminished squad.
The controversial calls got here inside minutes of one another. Nikita Parris was enraged when Kadeisha Buchanan introduced her down inside the realm across the 33-minute mark, and Skinner felt Jess Carter ought to have subsequently been penalised when she collided with Ona Batlle within the air.
“These are decisions that will make and break where you finish in a table,” mentioned Skinner. “We say it balances out and I’m hopeful that we see it, but the reality is in that game today we should have had two penalties.”
Erin Cuthbert and Guro Reiten had been among the many Chelsea gamers unavailable to supervisor Emma Hayes, with Fran Kirby, Katerina Svitkova and Pernille Harder among the many longer-term absentees.
Hayes was a lot happier by the hassle on present from the three-time defending WSL champions, who she closely criticised following final weekend’s defeat to Arsenal within the Continental Cup closing.
She mentioned: “I feel sometimes other teams get a hall pass for injured players. We’ve been without Fran Kirby and Pernille Harder almost the entirety of the season. I think this team deserves huge credit as a whole and not just Sam.
“We kept a clean sheet today after a difficult and underwhelming performance last weekend against Arsenal. We don’t have a full week’s prep every week. We have to play games every three days, so it’s tremendous from the team to show, I think, what we determine in-house as a real Chelsea performance.
“That’s what I was referring to last weekend. There are certain things we pride ourselves on and they were in abundance in today’s performance.”