Sunday's entertaining 5-2 victory against Crystal Palace was an emotional return to the pitch for West Ham United women’s team captain Katrina Gorry.
The Australia international had been out with a shoulder injury for the past three weeks that she suffered during the Hammers’ narrow loss at Brighton & Hove Albion last month.
But, with the support of the team’s medical staff, Gorry fought back to fitness for the visit of the Eagles and was at the front of the line-up, leading her side out into a fiery Chigwell Construction atmosphere.
Following an early set-back, Viviane Asseyi, Seraina Piubel, Manuela Paví and Anouk Denton found the back of the net to fire Rehanne Skinner’s side into an unassailable lead.
Then, in the second minute of second-half stoppage time, Gorry popped up at the back post to slam home the Hammers’ fifth of the afternoon and her third of the campaign, sending her to the top of West Ham’s individual scoring charts in the WSL this term - the perfect way to cap off weeks of hard work off the field.
“It’s a bit of an emotional one [game, for me],” said the skipper. “It was really tough coming off against Brighton not knowing what the next few weeks were going to look like for me, when all of the girls were away on national team duty.
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but the girls that stayed here [over the international break] put in the work. We were a bit slow today, but to score five great goals, five good team goals, I think it just shows the belief we have in the team.
“Our backs were against the walls in the first 13 minutes but we proved we could do it, and we came back, and came back fighting.
“It’s nice to score but it’s just nice to see the team winning. In the last few [league] games, we’ve fallen a bit short and I think we deserved points when we didn’t get them, so to come out and get three points today was really important for us.
“It was so nice [to be back on the pitch]. The girls got around me and we’ve got great medical staff here, so I really appreciate everything the Club has done for me over the past couple of weeks.
“And to be back out there with the girls, with the fans in the stands and my family in the stands, there’s nothing better. I think we’re making it really tough for teams to come here, we fought like crazy today and I could have sat back and watched us score a couple more goals to be honest.”
Gorry was quick to praise every member of the squad for their contribution to yesterday’s win in east London, and acknowledges everyone will play their part in a busy week on the pitch.
“We’ve got such an incredible squad this year,” she said. “Everyone deserves gametime and everyone’s working really hard, so I think a three-game week gives opportunity to other players.
“I think we’ve been playing really well in our cup games, so we’ve got to keep building that confidence.
“Villa before the break is another massive one for us. We’ll be taking a recovery day and then it’s all guns blazing.”
