West Ham United Women’s head coach Paul Konchesky admitted his disappointment at the manner of his side’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea on Thursday evening.
The Hammers came into the tie full of hope after holding Arsenal to a goalless draw in league action at the weekend, but the tone for the tie was set in the third minute when Sam Kerr gave the Blues the lead.
Chelsea would go on to triumph 7-0, leaving Konchesky and his team deflated – but determined to use that feeling as motivation for the remainder of the campaign.
It was a tough night and we’re disappointed.
As the manager, I’m embarrassed. Embarrassed more because of the effort my team put in on Sunday to get a 0-0 draw and a point against Arsenal – and listen, I know we’re playing a fantastic football team tonight – but the desire to work and resilience my team showed on Sunday, I don’t think they brought that to the table today.
Two minutes in you concede a goal, and it’s always going to be tough.
At 7-0, they’re running to get the football, they want to score more goals and that’s why they’re at the top of the league, that’s why they’re champions and go to cup finals in most seasons.
It’s been a fantastic journey in this competition and tonight’s result won’t define our season.
It’s tough to take right now, but in the league and in the cup run to get to the semi-final we’ve been fantastic.
We’re disappointed with the way we’ve gone out and lost, but hopefully that’s going to bring us together and stronger for the rest of the season.
It will bring us together, I know it will, I know what those girls are like.
We’re together anyway, but this will bring us even tighter. The worst thing for me is that most of my team go away for internationals and I won’t see them until maybe two or three days before Aston Villa in the FA Cup, which is another massive game here.
We need to dust ourselves down and get back down to work on Monday with the girls who stay with us.
The fans were fantastic.
All I can do is apologise on my behalf and the girls’ behalf for the result.
If it’s not for [fans] like them who come here and cheer our girls on, maybe we wouldn’t be where we are right now because they are our 12th player like I said on Sunday, and they were fantastic again tonight.
