Simon Parker hopes Rovers Women can kick on in the Championship following an important win against Portsmouth.

Tyler Toland and Maria Edwards got on the scoresheet either side of half time as Parker’s side climbed above Sheffield United in the table and moved five points clear of Pompey.

“Really pleased,” said the head coach. “Obviously, we have been on a bad run where we haven’t picked up points, even though I believe we should have from some of the games.

“We had just been a bit unfortunate, maybe they haven’t had the luck. Today, to win 2-0 is fantastic.

“We knew it was such a high pressure games given where we were in the league. Now, we have five points between us and the bottom and hopefully we can build on that.

“We showed some real good moments of grit and determination. I think, mentally, we coped with the occasion really well.

“A couple of decent goals and we know how we were last season with penalties, where we didn’t convert them, so it was fantastic for (Toland) to step up and in that big moment score for us.”

Parker praised his side’s resilience under pressure and was pleased to see the “big moments” go their way against Pompey.

“I need to watch the penalty back,” he continued. “I am sure Portsmouth will say it is quite soft, we will have to see if it was but we have been really unfortunate in certain moments.

“We have conceded goals that were offside and all those kind of things, missed opportunities we should have (scored). If that is the case, it is quite nice that we had a little bit of luck go our way.

“Then, (Alex) Brooksy has made a really important save in the second half.

“Those moments are massive and obviously when Maz (Edwards) came on to capitalise on a bit of a mix-up in their defensive line, big moments and when we were under pressure, how we dealt with that.”

Attention now shifts back to the League Cup as Rovers face a tough trip to Sunderland. Parker’s side were beaten 2-1 by Durham in their group opener last month.