Manager Rehanne Skinner insists her West Ham United women's team are 'chomping at the bit' to resume their Barclays Women's Super League campaign, with Sunday's clash against local rivals Chelsea first up on the fixture list.
After five weeks away from competitive match action, the Hammers are back with the visit of Sonia Bompastor’s side, who will make the short trip to Chigwell Construction Stadium for what has the hallmarks of an enthralling London derby.
The visitors sit top of the WSL table with just one defeat from their opening ten matches of the campaign. But West Ham will be full of confidence ahead of the clash, looking to carry over the momentum from their superb end to 2024 in Dagenham, which saw the Hammers, who have lost just once at Chigwell Construction Stadium all season, win their last three home matches of the calendar year in all competitions.
While there has been some time without a game, spirits at Chadwell Heath have remained high with the players returning to training last two weeks ago.
The squad have also welcomed Shekiera Martinez with open arms, who returned to West Ham after accumulating the necessary points to meet the Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) criteria for international player visas while on loan at SC Freiburg in the first half of the season. The 24-year-old has settled into the squad seamlessly, and the Germany U23 international could make her Hammers debut against the Blues on Sunday.
The Irons have gone toe-to-toe with teams at the higher end of the WSL standings so far this term, and Skinner will hope Sunday will be no different, as her side look to hit the ground running in 2025.
The Manager addressed the media for the first time this year ahead of the derby, discussing her side's enthusiasm for Sunday's encounter and how eager they are to return to Dagenham.
Dagenham is a difficult place for teams to come to
Our first game last year was against Chelsea in the FA Cup, it seems to be a trend that they’re our New Year’s starting team.
Our home ground has been made tremendous by the fans, it’s become a difficult place to come to. The players love playing at home and we’ve made life really difficult for a lot of people and had some really good results there. That gives us a lot of confidence going into the game.
We know Chelsea are a tough team, they’re scoring a lot of goals and we expect that to be a challenge. But we’re confident in the way we’re defending and playing as a unit, and I think we can make life difficult for them in certain areas.
Now we’re going into these run of home games, it’s fantastic for the fans to be closer to home all the time. They showed real commitment in the first half of the season, which we’re really grateful for, but we want to be in front of them in our ground.
Contract extensions are a statement of intent
There’s definitely bits we want to try and implement to make sure we’re supporting the players and that we are future-proofing, and getting some sustainability in the squad, and for the players who have been doing a fantastic job.
They are our players for the future and we are moving things in the right direction by getting those renewals done, and making a statement of intent. It’s positive for us, for what we’re trying to set up for the summer and moving forward it sets the tone for us.
We’re improving the squad every window on window, and maintaining players like Amber [Tysiak] and Anouk [Denton] is only going to help us to keep moving things in the right direction.
We're actively looking to strengthen
Princess [Ademiluyi] and Shekeira [Martinez] have rejoined us, who are players who can influence the squad an the way we play. Shekeira, in particular, has had a fantastic run of form at Freiburg and she'll be a huge asset to the team. That’s going to add value to us.
Every transfer window is key for us, we’re always looking to strengthen. We’re actively looking to keep strengthening and that will help us moving forward for what we’re trying to progress to.
Anyone can beat anyone in this league
We’re always looking at how we can cause other teams problems, and working to our strengths with the players we have. Everyone can take points off everyone in this league.
Leicester [in their draw against Chelsea before Christmas] defended a lot, but they made it difficult for Chelsea with the types of chances they gave them. I think that’s important.
Credit to Leicester and anyone who’s in that battle. Anyone can be beaten, we just have to stick to the things that will work well for us and the things we can exploit.
It’ll be a big test, don’t get me wrong, but the players are up for it, we’re ready for the game, and hopefully we can get something from it.
