Manager Gareth Taylor still believes Manchester City can win the WSL title and won't settle for only targeting a Champions League place following their 1-1 draw with neighbours Manchester United.
In front of a new club record attendance of 44,259, City had gone behind to a first half Leah Galton strike. But they levelled the game in an entertaining second half when Lauren Combs headed home after excellent work out wide from England star Chloe Kelly.
The result leaves City fourth in the WSL table, crucially only three points behind United who are in third, the final qualifying position for the UEFA Women's Champions League. Following the derby stalemate, the City boss set an bold target to his squad for the remainder of the campaign, reminding them that a title charge is still very much in their own hands.
"We want to win the league," said Taylor. "We’re not just looking at the Champions League. We win all our games in the second half of the season and we will win the league.
"We’ll play United again, Arsenal twice and Chelsea again. Those games are going to be big.
"We've put ourselves in a position (to win the league) but there's a lot of hard work to do.
"You can see this team is really starting to gel and work well together. It's exciting, it looks a strong group of players.
"We're in a good position in both competitions outside of the Champions League and have a real chance in this next half of the season."
A defeat to United would have left City's title ambitions in tatters and even a top three place looking a tough ask. And they trailed at half time after a well worked goal from Leah Galton.
But Taylor's team were much improved after the break and only an excellent save from England's number one Mary Earps kept out Khadija Shaw's powerful header. And the City boss felt a point was the least his side deserved against their local rivals.
"It had a bit of everything," he said. "It was probably a bit too open for both teams at the end.
"We could have won it we could have won it, so the result was probably a fair one for both teams.
"We wanted to win the game, but the second half was a good turnaround for us and it was important not to lose the game.
"I think there are still look at areas where we can improve on, there were parts of our build up we can look at.
"But in the second half we got it towards where we want it to be and that allowed us to arrive at the final third."
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