SAINTS ace Leeta Rutherford insists disappointment after a late draw at Blackburn Rovers “shows how far we have come and how far we want to go.”

Marieanne Spacey-Cale’s side were on course for a fifth successive victory and clean sheet in the Championship after Katie Wilkinson’s close-range opener.

However, the Lancashire outfit levelled with just five minutes to spare but could not end a Saints unbeaten run which now extends to eight – since the opening day.

Promotion rivals Bristol City lost on the same afternoon, while next league opponents London City Lionesses won and that meant they go top of the table with Saints in third.

“In the dressing room, it shows what we expect as a team because everyone is obviously disappointed,” Rutherford told the club website, after the match.

“That shows how far we have come, how far we want to go and what we expect of each other.

"Sunday was a game of two halves and it’s unfortunate that we come away with a draw as I don’t think we deserved to, but it was a game of two halves and after dominating the first we weren’t at it in the second.”

She added: “Looking at their height, Blackburn were playing for set plays, going for corners and free-kicks around the box.

“They’re a big team and that was their game plan, we didn’t switch onto it and kept giving away silly free-kicks and corners and they scored from it.”

Wilkinson’s first-half finish from Beth Lumsden’s set-up meant she landed on the scoresheet for a second match, after hitting a hat-trick to open her account last time out in the league.

“Absolutely, it’s a team effort and the first-half we played really well,” Rutherford said, of the veteran forward who signed this summer to bolster the Saints attack.

“The passing and the movement we practiced in training, with the pull-back, and it was really nice for her to get on the scoresheet putting it away as she does. Maybe we could have had a couple more, and we should have taken a few more chances all around.”

Rutherford has already set her eyes on moving forward and their upcoming matches, with a Continental Cup tie versus Women’s Super League Reading this weekend.

Saints lost their opening match of the cup to Coventry City and will need to improve on that result should they wish to progress past Reading and Tottenham Hotspur still to play. 

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