Everton boss Brian Sorensen ‘irritated and frustrated’ after Bristol City draw

Brian Sorensen was left “irritated and frustrated” after seeing his Everton side held to a 2-2 draw at home to fellow strugglers Bristol City in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Everton twice led in difficult conditions at Walton Hall Park, but were denied a first home win of the season as Amalie Thestrup struck eight minutes from time for Lauren Smith’s side.

“It’s very frustrating,” Sorensen said. “I think both goals were avoidable. It’s just about managing it better.

“We had enough chances to score more but right now I’m just a bit irritated and frustrated with the way they got in, and that we were not clinical enough to hurt them.

“That’s my feeling. It’s the luck we have at the moment, but it’s only up to us to get out of it by continuing to work hard.”

Everton were ahead early on as Martina Piemonte netted her first goal since her summer move from AC Milan, but Amy Rodgers levelled for the visitors in first-half stoppage time.

Megan Finnigan restored the home side’s lead after the break, only for Thestrup’s late strike to thwart Sorensen’s team.

“[Piemonte] was good today,” he said. “It was good that she got her first goal and hopefully she can get cracking on.

“It’s very frustrating that we had the chances to score more, but it was also tough conditions to play the game. It became scrappy and the ref made it more scrappy with some of the decisions.

“We’re disappointed, of course. We wanted more today but couldn’t get it.”

Smith, meanwhile, was left to reflect on a show of character from her City side.

“I think it was a pretty fair result,” she said. “When you look at the first 20 minutes, they were all over us, and in the last 20 minutes we were all over them, you’d say a draw is a fair result.

“I’m pretty pleased that we’ve come from behind twice, but there’s always a bit of you that thinks that when we’ve finished that strong, we want the win.

“These are the things you can take for granted sometimes. If you don’t have a team with character and belief, and confidence as well, you can really have problems, but that has never come into this group at all. It’s not a conversation we have.

“It’s the start of the season, and we are building and learning. We are really close to getting wins. We feel like the margins are quite small right now. It’s a ruthless league, and next week we might feel completely different, but right now it does feel like small margins.”