Kate Longhurst was pleased that West Ham United Women were able to come away with all three points on Sunday afternoon, as they beat Aston Villa 2-1.
The Villans had made the perfect start to the new Barclays Women’s Super League season, beating Manchester City and Leicester City in their opening two matches – the Hammers were looking to bounce back from defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea.
Paul Konchesky’s side were able to do exactly that and got off to the perfect start at Bescot Stadium, with Dagny Brynjarsdottir heading in her third goal in as many matches inside four minutes.
Honoka Hayashi then slotted in her first goal for the Club since making the move from AIK Fotboll Damer on deadline day ten or so minutes later to double West Ham’s advantage.
In the second half, Mackenzie Arnold denied former team-mate Alisha Lehmann from the spot after Longhurst had been adjudged to have handled the ball, before Kenza Dali found the net to make for an interesting final 15 minutes.
Hawa Cissoko and West Ham boss Paul Konchesky were both sent off after altercations in the closing stages, but the Irons hung on to take all three points with them back to east London.
Longhurst reflected on the victory at full-time…
I thought we looked really dangerous on the counter attack
We knew coming here today that it was likely that Aston Villa would have a lot of the ball – they have a lot of players that like to have the ball at their feet.
I don’t think we controlled the game as well as we know that we can do, but we looked really threatening when we did go forward.
We played to our strengths
We managed to get ourselves ahead and then it meant that we could try and defend that lead.
The second half certainly wasn’t pretty, but we did what we had to do in the end and we were able to come away with the three points.
Honoka Hayashi has slotted into the team brilliantly
She’s a really good person and you can see she has some great qualities.
You could see on her face after she scored that she was really happy to have scored, and we’re all really pleased for her. She could have had another goal as well, but it’s great to see her getting into the right areas.
We’re always confident when we have Macca between the sticks
I think the penalty was a little bit of a harsh one if I’m being honest, but I was pretty chilled out because I know how good Mac is at saving penalties.
I don’t know what her ratio is, but she’s already saved two this season, which is ridiculous – it might be about three quarters that she’s saved since she signed for us.
She came up with some other big saves for us during the game as well, I thought she was outstanding.
It’s a big victory against a very good side
We looked at this game as one that we’d be aiming to take all three points from, even though they have won all of their matches so far this season.
We feel as though we have the strength in our squad to come to places like this and pick up wins. It wasn’t easy, but we got the job done and that gives us some momentum now heading into our next match against Reading.
West Ham United Women now prepare to face Reading at Chigwell Construction Stadium on Sunday 23 October, with tickets for Adults starting from £13 and for £5 for Juniors.
