Paul Konchesky saw Saturday’s pre-season win over Billericay as a good starting point for West Ham United Women as they played their first pre-season fixture ahead of the new 2022/23 season.
The Hammers lined-up with a mixture of youth and experience at New Lodge, with three players stepping up from the Clubs’ WSL Academy programme to be part of the squad for the trip to Essex.
New signing Alex Hennessy opened the scoring, before goals from Claudia Walker, Yui Hasegawa and a double from Mel Filis sealed a 5-1 victory – with Billericay’s consolation coming from the penalty spot.
Konchesky, who was taking charge of his first match since being appointed manager of the football club at the end of last season was pleased with the shift that his players put in.
All in all, it was a very good workout for us
We were a little bit rusty to begin with and had to blow off the cobwebs, but it's a good starting point, and it was good for the players to be back out there.
We had quite a few of the younger players in the squad today mixed in with some of the more experienced players – so it was good for those young players to get out there with them and get some experience playing against a first-team side.
We played some really nice stuff at times
I thought when Yui (Hasegawa) came on, some of the stuff she was doing was world class – her interchanging of the ball with others and obviously the goal that she scored as well.
We’re really pleased with the goals that we scored – Mel (Filis) got two nice goals as well, finishing the game off with that lovely chip.
The main priority is to get minutes into the legs at this stage
We can’t lose sight of this aim, we want to make sure that everyone is ready when we get to September and the WSL season begins – but it’s always nice when you can start with a win.
Winning is a habit and we want to make sure we have some momentum going into that first week of the new season.
It was fantastic to have the three players from the academy involved
Amy Jarvis, Chloe Brand and Rebecca Chitole-Porter were only drafted into the squad yesterday due to a couple of injuries. They really stepped up for us and fair play to them, they gave everything they had out there and I thought they did really well.
It’s part of our ethos here to give young players an opportunity – and they will get more experience with us over the next couple of weeks.
We’re missing a couple of first-team players at the moment due to injury
Emma Snerle is the lengthiest of all of those, we’re hoping that she will be ready for when the beginning of the season comes around.
Kate (Longhurst) picked up a little bit of a niggle in training yesterday, so there was no point in risking her during this first match. We know that she’s chomping at the bit to be out there, but it won’t take her long to build up her match sharpness again.
Jess Ziu and Kirsty Smith also have slight niggles, but we will assess them over the next few days and hopefully they will be involved against Enfield on Wednesday.
Lucy Parker had a little bit of a set-back from the injury she sustained towards the end of last season – she’s back on the grass now and we’re hopeful that she will be ready come the beginning of the season.
It’s always nice to come back to somewhere that you enjoyed playing
I really enjoyed my time here at Billericay towards the backend of my career. At that time they had an owner that put in a lot of money and I think you can see that in terms of how good the facilities are now.
It was nice to see some familiar faces around the place and everyone really welcomed our staff and players today - we’d like to wish Billericay all the best with their upcoming campaign.
But at the end of the day, our aim was to come here and get some good minutes into the girls – and it’s great that we’ve done that and also got the win.
The Hammers are back in action on Wednesday 27 July, when they travel to Enfield Town for their second pre-season fixture ahead of the 2022/23 Barclays Women's Super League campaign.
