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Manchester United Women pulled off a late win to defeat a difficult Leicester City side 1-0.
The Red Devils controlled most of the match but did not find a breakthrough until the 83rd minute when Ella Toone came off the bench to score a world-class winner. As her manager, Marc Skinner, commented at the end of the match, “it was a goal worthy of winning any game”.
Speaking in a post-match interview, Toone could hardly contain her delight after scoring her ninth WSL goal of the season. As relayed by the club’s official website, the midfielder claimed, “yeah, it meant a lot. The girls dug deep and I knew my job was to come on and to change the game and to try and get the girls a goal and that’s what I did”.
When discussing the goal she humbly declared it “was a decent finish” before joking off-camera that “Mary (Earps) wouldn’t have saved it either”.
ELLA TOONE WITH THE ROCKET 🚀🚀🚀
An incredible strike from distance! WOW! 😱#BarclaysWSL @ManUtdWomen @ellatoone99 pic.twitter.com/6YmrlKJujM
— Barclays Women’s Super League (@BarclaysWSL) April 28, 2024
The 24 year old was also asked if she knew it was in from the moment she hit it. She replied, “yeah, sometimes when you strike a ball and you know when you’ve hit it clean, you know it’s going in. To be fair, when I’d seen the keeper got dead close to it and then, yeah when it hit the back of the net, luckily, I was buzzing with it.”
Skinner had asked before the game that his side showed ruthlessness in both boxes and while this was lacking in the attacking department, the defence stayed solid and kept a vital clean sheet against a dangerous Leicester counter-attack.
Full back Hannah Blundell, spoke on the team’s togetherness and the importance of having substitutes that can make a difference in games.
Commenting on Toone’s strike she said, “incredible, I mean, to be fair the subs that came on were fantastic. Tooney’s goal, I’m honestly speechless. Incredible from her but that’s Tooney for you. She can produce those moments and thankfully she did today and got us the win.”
Elaborating further on the side’s depth she claimed, “the good thing about this team as well is that when players aren’t starting, they know they can come on and make a difference. They’ve got a positive mentality.”
Blundell went on to praise the defence for keeping a clean sheet in the face of a strong Leicester onslaught in the final ten minutes of play.
“When you keep a team like Leicester in it, they’re always going to have chances. Thankfully we have a keeper like Mary in goal and the back four. They were fantastic today and I think we have been all season.”
“You have got to stay switched on through the 113 minutes we had today and if you aren’t getting the goals, then you need to keep a clean sheet at the back.”
United’s women have an exciting final three games of the season remaining, where they take on Liverpool next Sunday and Chelsea in three weeks time. Sandwiched in between is also the small matter of the FA Cup final against Tottenham, where they will hope to go one better than last season and lift the famous trophy at Wembley.
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