Rehanne Skinner praised the work ethic and application of West Ham United women's team in their Barclays Women's Super League defeat to Arsenal on Sunday evening.
The Irons fell behind early on as Frida Maanum opened the scoring, before Beth Mead added a double before the half time whistle sounded. However, the Irons played some good football, particularly as the game moved into the second half, as they caused issues for their opponents.
Indeed, there were chances too, with Viviane Asseyi seeing two efforts come back off the woodwork, whilst Izzy Atkinson missed an opportunity from close range late on.
Despite the 3-0 scoreline, there were plenty of reasons for Skinner to be positive at full time...
On the whole, I'm pleased with the performance that we showed
We've created chances at key moments in the game but haven't been able to take them. If we could have scored one of those after Arsenal scored their first goal then it might have been a different half.
We had Viviane [Asseyi] hit the woodwork twice during the game, then she also had a header that went just wide. When you look at those and the timing of those, it has a big impact.
When we were 2-0 down, they'd had three chances and scored two, whilst we'd had two chances and not been able to find the net. That's where we're trying to change the way that we finish in front of goal and take more of those opportunities.
In terms of the second half, I couldn't be more proud of the players performances
We played well in the first half, but there were moments that cost us. But, for large parts of the game, we managed the treat that Arsenal were able to put us under.
They're a very good footballing team and you have to manage a lot of different problems. As a collective, we solved a lot of those issues throughout the course of the first half, but second half, we were just better in terms of being more proactive, pressing with intent and energy.
Cohesively, it was much, much better, and it was probably one of our best 45 minutes of the season, and we'll be able to take a lot out of it.
There's so many things involved in winning football matches
There's talent, there's work ethic, there's character and so many others, and I feel as though we've done everything that we possibly could in that second half to create chances for us to get back into the game.
It takes a lot of heart when you've conceded three goals to keep going. We know that we could have avoided those goals, but the players tried to rectify the situation and nobody shied away from that today.
That's something that will stand us in good stead going into the next set of matches.
The international break brings with it it's own challenges
The timing and the volume of games that the players have had makes it difficult. We're going to have a lot of senior players away, which will put a lot of demands on them. It's important for those that are going away to give their best for their countries as much as it is for us, so we hope that they enjoy the experience and come back fit and firing.
For the players that are still here, we get an opportunity to work on some of the individual parts that they all want to keep moving forward with.
Macca was ruled out due to injury
She picked up an injury yesterday in training, which caused problems for her being available for today. She won't be going to camp with Australia for their international matches whilst we managed her rehabilitation and assess the turnaround time.
But it shows why we have Megan here, which is because we want two top quality goalkeepers that we know can keep the standards as high as possible.
