We began the season with a Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow. On the face of it, the win was secured by Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s brilliant strike during a dominant opening 45 minutes for the Blues.

However, in reality, a second-half fightback from the visitors meant the victory owed just as much to our efforts at the back, to withstand a spell of late pressure and protect our narrow lead.

That included some big saves from goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, in particular two excellent stops from set-pieces in the dying moments of the game to make sure we came away with all three points.

‘I think tonight was more a team performance than an individual one, I think all the players were trying to help the team,’ began Bompastor. ‘In the squad I know I have a lot of good players and Hannah is one of them.

‘It was not an easy game for her because we had the control of the first half and for the goalkeepers you have to make sure you are really focused and you stay concentrated during all the game.

‘Especially at the end you could see it was a tight game and Aston Villa was trying to score. In that moment she has to stay focused and help the team to perform, and she was helping the team to have the clean sheet on Friday.’

Of course, the clean sheet wasn’t just up to Hampton, as the defenders in front of her did their job throughout to restrict Villa’s opportunities to test our goalkeeper, with Kadeisha Buchanan one of those to impress in our back line.

That is no surprise to Bompastor, though, having previously worked with the Canadian international during the 2021/22 season, when they won the French league title and the Champions League together during the centre-back’s last year before joining Chelsea.

‘For sure Kadeisha is a really good player, she has so much talent and I knew that coming from Lyon, because I was her coach over there. I know her very well, I know what she can bring to the team.

‘She has so much experience, she’s a real defender, she likes to defend one-v-one, she’s so strong. And also she’s able when she has the ball to make some differences.

‘So I think she had a great game, I’m so happy. It will bring some confidence to her and to the team.’