Karen Hills said she wanted to see a reaction from her team in this game against Sunderland, and "they didn’t disappoint" after winning 1-0.
Amelie Thestrup's 36th minute goal was enough to see the Addicks take home all three points, and Hills said she was "super happy" with that.
"Obviously super happy to get the three points today against a very good Sunderland side. It was always going to be a tough challenge, and I said in my other interviews before the game that it was going to be a tight contest, and it came down to a set piece in our favour. But, ultimately, it was about us reacting.
"I wanted to see a reaction from Wednesday to see the character that we have, and they didn’t disappoint today, and I thought they were excellent from minute one. I thought the game changers came on, really helped us and that second half we had to dig deep, even though we had that spare player for about 15 minutes.
"I think they put us under a lot of pressure, and we had to absorb that, so I’m super proud of that group of players because that could have been a really tough test for us this afternoon if we had allowed it to be. But, yeah, set piece goal, we’ll take that, and we’ll take the three points."
The need for a reaction was all because of the midweek loss to Portsmouth, which stopped the unbeaten league run at an impressive 27 games. Whilst emotions were raw for some after the game, and could have hampered preparations for the next, Hills said that the players did not need any motivation to pick themselves up.
"They don’t need any motivating, they know what their job is, they know what they need to do, and today was just about going back to what we know, whats our identity, and our identity is to work really really hard and put teams under pressure, create some really strong moments and try to defend it as well as we possibly can.
"The work rate today, I thought, was outstanding from every single player, and that’s what we’re about, thats what we pride ourselves [on], and if we did all the basics well, then I think we’ve got a good platform to go on and put on a performance and potentially win a game and that's what we did today. So, I’m super proud of the group of players, and now it’s about recovery, resting and looking forward to next weekend."
The next game for the Addicks is away at Bristol City in the league. Despite holding one win over the Robin's this season, Hills knows the challenge that her team will face next week.
"Bristol, we know, are a top, top side. They have some fantastic individual players, but as a collective are doing great this season. We know that the game that we played here we found it difficult, challenging. Yes, we won the game, but we had to work really, really hard and dig deep, and we’re going to need to do that again.
"Every game, I talk about this league is an unbelievable league, that any team can beat any team on any given day, so we need to be at our best. And I think after that performance, it shows me and gives me so much confidence in this group of players that they have the character, the belief, the desire to keep working for each other, and we also had some fantastic quality out there as well, so those ingredients within this group is great.
"So what I want to see is that we go back in this week, work hard, have the plan in place, and we’ll try and execute it next weekend to the best of our ability."
