Grace Fisk believes that securing all three points and a clean sheet against Tottenham Hotspur was important for a variety of reasons.
The Hammers went into the match knowing that a victory over their local rivals would put them six points ahead of the Lilywhites in the Barclays Women’s Super League standings, while all but cementing their place in fifth position going into the Christmas break.
When Dagný Brynjarsdóttir fired a penalty wide of the target just before half-time, it looked as though it might not be their day, but the captain had another opportunity moments after the break and made no mistake, firing the ball beyond former Hammer Becky Spencer.
Then Fisk’s defensive partner Hawa Cissoko would seal the victory off in style, running through and lifting the ball over Spencer after the defender had found herself the furthest player forward on the counter.
The victory meant that the Hammers took home the bragging rights, and all three points – both of which were important to Fisk and her teammates.
“It means a lot to get the three points against Spurs,” she told whufc.com. “Obviously the most important thing is making sure we came away with everything here today, but it does make it that extra bit special to win against your rivals. To come out with three points, two goals and a clean sheet – we couldn’t have asked for any more, really.”
The Irons certainly did not have things their own way on a bitterly cold afternoon in east London, with Tottenham having the better of the play in the first 30 minutes of action at Brisbane Road.
But the Hammers stood firm and were able to repel a number of attacks from Rehanne Skinner’s home side.
“I think, for the first 30 minuets, they had much more of the ball than we did,” Fisk explained. “They were creating a lot more and we really had to stick together and defend as a team during that tough period.
“Then we changed a couple of bits and grew into it a little bit more – missing the penalty was a blow, but we all kept saying to 'Dags' that another chance was going to come her way in the second half, and it did.
“We just had that bit more fire in our bellies in the second half and we knew that we could come out with a result, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The change of shape saw the Hammers move to a back four, with Fisk playing alongside Cissoko in the centre of defence – and she was delighted for her teammate to score her first goal in the WSL, even if she was slightly surprised to see her so high up the pitch!
“It’s funny because, as a centre-back, you’d expect Hawa to be somewhere in and around the box defending the free-kick, so when I looked up and saw her sprinting up past the halfway line, I’m thinking ‘that is not like any other centre-back I know, that’s Hawa!’ – Even her touch, I thought it was too big!
“But it’s Hawa, so she was away and managed to get to it and then have the audacity to chip the goalkeeper. She’s a great teammate, a great centre-back and I’m delighted for her.”
The Hammers have one final match before they break for Christmas – a Continental Tyres Group C tie against Brighton & Hove Albion at Broadfield Stadium in Crawley on Saturday 17 December (12noon kick-off). A win there would secure a place in the knockout stages in the New Year.
“I think we’re pleased with where we are at the moment, Fisk stated. “When we look back on pre-season, we had difficult results and I think we all knew that we could do better.
“We’ve been able to do that – there’s still been times this season where we haven’t been at our best performance wise, and we could have had more points. But games like today where we showed exactly what we can do and shows why we deserve to be in fifth place going into the Christmas break,” she said.
If you would like to cheer Paul Konchesky's side on this Saturday, tickets are available to buy here.
