Gareth Taylor has hailed the standard of Manchester City’s goals in our deserved 2-1 win over Manchester United in the Continental Cup.

Following an equal and goalless first half at the Joie Stadium, Chloe Kelly broke the deadlock soon after the interval when she cleverly faked to shoot inside the box before smashing the ball into the back of the net.

This ignited the hosts’ exciting attacking play and we doubled our advantage when the England international became the architect by playing the ball to Kerstin Casparij who saw her drilled effort fall to the feet of Lauren Hemp to tap home.

Although our lead was halved in stoppage time by Nikita Parris, we held on for a vital three points which saw us secure top spot in Group B.

It means we have secured passage into the quarter-finals of the League Cup while also competing in an enthralling Barclays Women’s Super League title race and in an FA Cup fifth round tie with Arsenal.

And Taylor is relishing the challenge of winning silverware during the second half of the season. 

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“It’s always nice when that happens [City beat Manchester United],” he declared.

“It was a highly charged affair I think tonight. It started off the game really fast, we didn’t especially start that well. They were on the front foot.

“We were always struggling a little bit with our build up play at times. When we got it right, we carved them open and I think we proved that in the first goal, the second goal was high quality as well.

“For most parts, the second half was much improved and we had to make changes, there’s obviously a few knocks. Jill is a little concerning as to the extent of her injury. All in all, pleased for the guys we got over the line.

“It was on us tonight to go and win and we did that. We showed good character and good determination.

“The confidence level is high, but we need to maintain the level of performance that’s when we know we have a chance of winning games.

REPORT | CITY 2-1 MANCHESTER UNITED 

“What we’ve done is position ourselves well and we’re playing some good stuff at times.

“We always want more and improve. We think this group of players have improved a lot over the last couple of seasons.

“I’m excited about that and looking forward to the challenge.”

Watch Taylor’s post match interview on Matchday Live in the video player above!