“I don’t agree” - Liverpool star blasts decision to disallow goal that robbed Reds of win

Liverpool midfielder Ceri Holland admitted her side left Goodison Park frustrated after seeing a potential second half winner chalked off for an alleged foul by Holland on goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan.

Matt Beard’s side earned a deserved point in the Merseyside derby on Friday night after Katie Stengel cancelled out Gabby George’s opener just before half time but the 25-year-old conceded it could been so much better had it not been for a harshly disallowed second half Leighanne Robe goal.

“The referee has said that I’ve fouled the goalkeeper - I don’t agree with her” said Holland of the decision to rule out Liverpool’s second half strike.

“Referees have to make decisions in the moment and it’s one of them we don’t agree with but we just have to take that and move on. I thought Robey (Leighanne Robe) was fantastic today. She’s come in the last few games and really held her own in that position which has been great to see. She puts her body on the line for everything.

“We had the chances to win the game but to come back from 1-0 down at Goodison Park is difficult so I think we did really well to bring that back but we had the chances to win in the end. It’s difficult to get points in this league and we are now looking up the table rather than down which is nice. Another point on the board and we just want to push up that table”.

It was a promising performance from the visitors with Liverpool always looking the most likely in the game, with Stengel in particular causing plenty problems for the Everton back line and Holland cited their poor performance in the reverse fixture at Anfield earlier in the campaign as their motivation.

“At Anfield earlier in the season, we weren’t ourselves. We wanted to give a good account of ourselves tonight. We wanted something for our fans too. It is a Merseyside derby and we want to pay them back for a poor performance at Anfield.

Liverpool born Missy Bo Kearns echoed her thoughts on the game at Goodison Park, and spoke about her pride at the impressive 22,161 attendance: “It’s frustrating, I think we should have got three points but that’s football” said Kearns.

“We are creating chances. We are building every week and getting better and better. I think this performance was better than last week’s against Tottenham (where Liverpool won 2-1). Sometimes results don’t go way, but we go again next week against West Ham.

“This is where we want women’s football to go. It’s massive and the support that we got was brilliant with our fans coming out to watch us. They’re the occasions you want to play in.”