NG Sports Photography

Reading boss, Kelly Chambers addressed the media ahead of her side's WSL clash against Everton.

Kelly Chambers confirmed that her side is ready for the trip to Merseyside following the winter break, “they have all come back in good spirits and in good health, so they are probably a bit like me and raring to go now.”

The Reading boss admitted that the Christmas break was bad timing for her side, “we were in a really good place before Christmas and we didn’t really want the Christmas break for us, so it’s important that we try and pick off where we left off.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash Chambers added that “Everton is not an easy place to go, it’s very windy as there with no surroundings and it can be very wet, but the pitch is lovely to play on, and there are no excuses for us”. 

She added that her team's “outstanding” performance against Chelsea before Christmas will “give us believe when we come up against Everton”.

When asked if there were many injuries within the squad Chambers said: “No, not too many at all. Obviously, it’s nice that we have got people like Brooke Hendrix back into the side, we are probably going to be missing Lily Woodham who picked up a little niggle in training last week, we just don’t want to push things”.

Chambers went on to say that Canadian international, Deanne Rose is recovering well from her Achilles injury she picked up in September, “She’s doing really well, and we are really trying to work with her to try and get her back for the World Cup for Canada, that’s her and our goal”.

With the transfer window still open, Chambers said that the club were potentially looking to bring “one or two” players in on loan, “but as it stands there is nothing set in stone”.

Chambers mentioned that it has been hard for her team to gather momentum due to the small number of games and regular international camps, “we do get big breaks in the season, you pretty much have an international break every month, so it again breaks up momentum whether that’s for the players, for the team, for fans.”

When asked if adding more teams to the WSL would be a solution to increase the number of games Chambers' answer was, “yeah possibly that could be, like I said it's hard at the moment because I think people are starting to see that there is still that gap in the WSL so if you start bringing more teams in is it just going to become a two-team league, or three leagues in one, for clubs like us we want more games”. 

Chambers added that “someone like Chelsea that are playing in every competition and will likely be in every competition until pretty much the final they are gonna have loads (of games) and then if you add in international games on top of that, for them there are still a lot for them.”

Reading will travel to Merseyside to take on Everton this Sunday, 15th January at 1 pm (GMT). The match will be shown live on the FA player