LIVERPOOL showed their top-flight credentials with a victory against Manchester United in the League Cup last week.

The Championship side have been placed in a tough group in which they will also face Women’s Super League (WSL) sides Everton and Manchester City, but this is exactly the type of challenge their manager, Vicky Jepson, is relishing.

Jepson’s side were relegated last season after the league was brought to a halt with eight games to go due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The FA decided that the league placings, including the champion, Champions League qualifiers and the relegated sides, would be decided on a points-per-game basis.

This saw Chelsea crowned champions despite being a point behind Manchester City but having played a game fewer, and Liverpool’s relegation confirmed.

Liverpool were naturally disappointed with the decision and believed they could have turned things around in the remaining games. But the club had won just one of their 14 games, and were still bottom of the league despite having played a game more than Birmingham City.

As the men’s team were winning the Premier League for the first time in 30 years, the women’s side had been an afterthought for the club on the red half of Merseyside and their relegation was not a surprise.

A whole host of high-profile players have left the team in recent seasons, often hinting as they departed at a lack of support and ambition from the club’s owners when it comes to the women’s game.

Following an exodus of players in 2018, goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain, who joined Manchester United, commented: “It’s important to be in an environment that challenges me every day and one where I can enjoy playing football.

“I also want to know that I am part of a project that is doing the most it can to develop women’s football.”

Chamberlain, and others, knew this was something Liverpool would not offer them at that time.

Just last season, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes described the pitch at Prenton Park in Birkenhead, where Liverpool play their home games, as “the worst in the league” and “a stain on their football club.”

Despite the lack of support from above, Liverpool’s players and coaching staff deserve huge credit for navigating this difficult period. 

Jepson, who was hired at the end of 2018, the staff, and the players are doing their best to turn things around, and are now looking to rebuild their team and their reputation in the Championship.

In the long run, the issues highlighted to a wider audience by their relegation at the same time as a Premier League title win for the men’s team may serve as a wake-up call for the club’s owners, not that they should have needed one.

The increased coverage of the women’s game in Britain since the 2019 World Cup has meant this could not be swept under the carpet.

It’s so far so good for Jepson and her players as they top the Championship table after four games having won three and drawn one and, though the League Cup is seen as the least important of the three domestic competitions, for Liverpool it is another chance to show the progress they are making.

They will have to do so against some of the strongest sides the WSL has seen. 

Teams in the top flight have been making waves in the transfer market this summer, signing some of the highest-profile names in the game. Man United themselves boast two of those in the shape of US internationals and World Cup winners Tobin Heath and Christen Press.

This flurry of transfer activity, and the addition to the WSL of some of the best players in the game, makes it all the more disappointing that one of the biggest names in the English game, Liverpool, were themselves not in a position to add a marquee signing.

But they nevertheless have some impressive players of their own, not least the goalscorers in the 3-1 win against United, Rachel Furness and Rinsola Babajide.

Jepson has arranged them into a cohesive unit that will challenge for promotion and, on this evidence, may even challenge the top-flight teams in the domestic cups.

“Every time we step up against a WSL team we want to prove we deserve to be in the same league as them,” Jepson commented after Wednesday’s win.

“I’m a bit emotional about how well our players did because, make no mistake, United are an incredible team under Casey Stoney. 

“You look at the quality of the substitutes they brought on and we’ve had an experience of playing against their USA stars Tobin Heath and Christen Press, plus the quality of Leah Galton and Jackie Groenen, so we did so well against a very good team, and I’m extremely proud of every single one of them.”

On a relaid surface at Prenton Park, things are beginning to look up for the Reds who hope to return to the top flight sooner rather than later, and hope to get the support needed in order to do so.