Manager Rehanne Skinner has discussed how much her side has developed over the past 20 months ahead of West Ham United women’s team’s Barclays Women’s Super League match at home to Manchester City on Wednesday night.
Skinner admitted the Club had to go through a rebuild when she was appointed women’s team manager in July 2024, but she is delighted at the ‘fantastic position’ her side now find themselves in.
The progression of her Hammers was clear in Sunday’s WSL clash at Arsenal. The women’s team went toe-to-toe with the Meadow Park outfit and surged to a deserved 3-1 advantage thanks to a first-half brace from Amber Tysiak and a Shekiera Martinez goal on the break.
Unfortunately, a six-minute spell in the second period saw a shift in momentum and Arsenal capitalised, netting three times.
Speaking in her pre-match press conference at Chadwell Heath, Skinner has challenged her side to finish as high as they possibly can in the WSL table - and that road begins on Wednesday night against Gareth Taylor’s Citizens.
The West Ham boss will be without Viviane Asseyi for the visit of fourth-placed City after she picked up her fifth yellow card of the season on Sunday and will therefore serve a one-match suspension. But with a lot of her squad getting minutes at Meadow Park, Skinner admitted her team selections are causing her headaches due to the competitiveness within the group.
Skinner also discussed the test Manchester City will pose and how good the Claret and Blue faithful have been this term while speaking to the media on Tuesday. Here are the main talking points…
There were lots of positives to take from our Arsenal performance
We knew it would be a tough game and I thought we executed our gameplan pretty well. To score in the ways we did was really pleasing.
You expect periods of pressure [from Arsenal]. From our side, we’re disappointed with the spell that essentially allowed them to get ahead in the game for the first time.
But there are loads of positives to take, in terms of the squad and the opportunities people got.
We want to build consistency
The biggest focus for us is we want to be consistent in our games. We’ve played really well for three games on the bounce, we’ve been much more threatening in our style of play, and that’s really good because that’s something we’ve been trying to achieve for a while.
Things are moving in the right direction and we want to use the squad effectively again on Wednesday night. We want to be competitive, we’re at home and we want to try and make life as difficult as possible [for Man City].
We want to make life difficult for City and continue our good home form
We know what to expect from their (Manchester City) style of play and individuals. We want to focus on us and carry the good stuff from the weekend into Wednesday night, and take the game to them - we want to make their life difficult.
We want to give a really good show for our fans, who have been fantastic this season, which has led to us equalling the Club’s home record for points [in a season], and we want to try and push that further on Wednesday.
We're in a fantastic position now compared to when I came in
Our biggest thing is we want to achieve more than we did previously - that’s something that’s important to us, building on last year. It was a rebuild at the Club, in lots of different ways.
I think we’re in a fantastic position now compared to when I came in, across the board: behind the scenes, with the squad - I think we’ve got some great players in the building.
If we get our heads down and work in the right way, and stay focused on what our task is, I think we can definitely get more points out of the season. We want to finish as high as we can, that’s always the aim.
