West Ham United Women’s Manager, Olli Harder was pleased with what he saw from his side as they began preparations for upcoming season by beating London City Lionesses 1-0 at Princes Park.
19-year-old midfielder, Mel Filis scored the only goal of the game after a good piece of play between defenders Gilly Flaherty and Grace Fisk.
Dagný Brynjarsdóttir and Claudia Walker had good chances to extend the lead, whilst at the other end, Anna Leat was on hand to deny the home side and pick up a deserved clean sheet.
At the full-time whistle, Harder explained that he was happy with the output from his players at this early stage of pre-season, but also looking forward to seeing his team improve as they approach the opening weekend of the season.
Olli, a good workout in the sunshine here in Kent, what did you make of the game?
“It was a nice pre-season friendly - we got what we wanted out of it, which was improving the fitness of the players. We also got to work on a couple of bits and pieces and made a few mistakes which is natural at this stage. We kept a clean sheet which is always important and scored a goal and probably should have had a couple more.
“It was a really good workout and credit to London City Lionesses, I thought they played well, made the game competitive, and I think you could see that they’re a little bit further ahead of us in their pre-season than we are, but overall, it was a good test for us today.”
It was our first official friendly match against a team that have played a couple more games, was it pleasing that we were able to win the game?
“Yeah, it’s obviously our first official outing so we’re pleased to come away with the win, but credit to London City, they looked strong and for us it was a perfect workout. We now have the opportunity to improve and look forward to our next pre-season fixture in a couple of days time, but on the whole, there was many a positive.”
It was nice to see Mel Filis open her account, something that you’ll be hoping she can do throughout the upcoming season…
“Yeah, Mel had a really strong game today and to top it off with a goal is a credit to her. As I said, for her it’s a case for her to continue to work hard as she’s a young player that we’d really like to develop. The future is bright for her.”
As you mentioned, it was good for players to get minutes into their legs, but also good for those new signings to get more minutes on the pitch to help better understand your style of play...
“Yes of course, our play was a little bit frantic at times, but as I said, it’s pre-season so this is the opportunity to make mistakes, not when the season gets underway in September. In terms of the outcome of what we wanted to get out of today’s match, we got that today.”
What impressed you about our play today and where would you like to see an improvement?
“In terms of things to improve on, I think that we could improve on everything in small amounts. It’s obviously early days in our pre-season schedule so we should be looking to improve in all areas as we move closer towards the start of the season.
“The willingness to solve problems out on the pitch impressed me, as well as how good we were at communicating and working hard for each other, so that’s the fundamentals and the baselines for us - that was good to see today.”
