A 0-4 defeat against third place Rugby on Sunday for the Tigresses. Chris Hames reflected on the day, the game and spoke about how proud he was of the effort from the team.

“Probably a tough one to reflect on straight away in terms of what we’ve got available, I think we give a good account of ourselves, and we can walk away despite the score line with quite a bit of pride and reflection in some positives,” said Chris Hames.

A long distance and a delay for the Tigresses, with Hull City Ladies unlucky not to have pulled one back before halftime as Sophie Tinson rattled the cross-bar. Chris said: “It’s not excuses but it’s difficult circumstances with the travel and we’re two nil down after 15 minutes, not had a proper warm up, it can happen. Difficult day on that sense but on the flip side of that, I thought there were moments, where we really looked like us and we was effective and aggressive, we’ve hit the bar towards the end of the first half which could change it and we applied some good early pressure second half.

Those are the things we can be really proud of and ultimately it could be a different game, if we’re able to take them but look, Rugby are a excellent side and will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season so we take the provides from the overall performance if not the result.”

A positive team talk at half-time Chris expressed: “We were nice and calm about it, we recognised the situation we was in was because of a slow and sloppy start, and wee grew into it and we adapted, and we tried to do a few things a little bit differently, but we’re trying to make the best what we’ve got.

Ultimately, and again Rugby are a really good side and has some really clear plans but three out of the four goals were from our own mistakes so it’s trying to limit those, conceding four every week doesn’t put us in the position to get us the wins.”

Hull City Ladies were without 8 senior players on Sunday, Chris stated it’s not an excuse but a tough spell with bad luck on the injury front, as players played in other positions on Remembrance Sunday.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls efforts, we’ve got 14 girls here today, we’ve got Lily coming on given her some decent account of herself for 20 minutes but it’s a huge jump from where she was at and not had a lot of opportunities for that.

We’ve had Maddi and I don’t think she’s ever played at left back before and she’s been frankly quite outstanding, dealing with players in those wider positions because she’s had to fill in. We’ve got Sophie who we’ve brought in, doing really well, could have had a goal or two but we’re pushing her to her limits at the moment in terms of coming back from her time out and stepping up this level. I couldn’t be more proud of the girls and the effort they’re making and what they’re trying to do,” Chris said.

Back-to-back home games for the Tigresses, Burnley this Sunday in the FAWNL before Middlesbrough on Sunday 24th November in the 2nd Round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

“For me, it’s doing what I can to support them, and make sure they get awards at the end of it as ultimately it all comes down to my responsibility, and again it’s an excuse, it’s injuries and that is football, I just got to find a way to give them a little bit more.

Last time we played Burnley, we gave a good account of ourselves and hopefully, have a couple of faces back and add that depth and we’ll see how we do against another excellent side.”