Dagný Brynjarsdóttir knew her first goal postpartum was always going to be a special moment - and that it was, but it was made even more of a landmark occasion as it capped off another victory for West Ham United women’s team in the Women’s League Cup.
The Hammers are through to the knockout stages, the final eight of the competition after a convincing 3-0 victory at home to Southampton in Dagenham, which took their Group C record to three matches, three wins, with a scintillating 13 goals scored.
The Iceland international, who wore the captain’s armband in Katrina Gorry’s absence, with vice-captain Shelina Zadorsky on the bench, spurned a chance to put the Hammers ahead in the first half as she sent her penalty over the bar.
Not letting her head drop, she was determined to make sure she was not left rueing that spot kick come full-time, and she got on the scoresheet to net the home side’s third of the evening in second-half stoppage time.
While on paper it is not the best goal Brynjarsdóttir has scored in her career, it is one that will live long in her and her family’s memory as it marks her first since the birth of her son, Andreas.
She said: “It was a bit of a relief [when the ball hit the back of the net], I’m not going to lie. It was a special feeling, especially after I missed the penalty and I had a few half chances when I couldn’t get a shot on goal.
“I put in a lot of hard work to be in the place that I’m in now, so I’m happy I was able to help the team. My penalty was very bad so luckily I could make up for it.
“It was very nice to get my first goal postpartum, that was always going to be a special one. It’s a goal that I’m always going to remember.
“Cami [Sáez] did a great job laying the ball off to me and I just focused on keeping it low. There were a lot of players in front of the goal and luckily it went in.”
The Hammers are in red-hot form, chalking up three successive victories with four wins to their name from their last five matches.
They head to Villa Park on Sunday to bring the curtain down on 2024, and the side are full of confidence heading into the Barclays Women’s League clash.
“We want to finish on a win, obviously. We’ve won three in a row now, so we want to focus on winning the fourth one before going into the Christmas break,” she said.
“It’s good that in the last two games the players have got a lot of minutes and we know going up to Aston Villa is going to be a tough game. But our confidence is high at the moment and we just have to go up there and play our game.”
