Rehanne Skinner hailed her sides resilience and character as West Ham United women’s team came from behind to draw 1-1 with Manchester United in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
The Irons fell behind after just four minutes through Rachel Williams’ strike, but continued to probe a well-drilled United defence, and got their equaliser after 85 minutes courtesy of Viviane Asseyi’s lobbed effort.
And it was the least the Hammers deserved after another tireless performance in front of over 3,000 fans.
Having suffered a disappointing defeat to Everton before the international break, Skinner was pleased with the response, resilience, and character that her side showed in finding a way to come back and take something from the game after an early setback, taking yet another point from top four opposition.
The boss shared her thoughts with West Ham TV at the full time whistle...
It’s a massive point for us.
I think it’s a massive point for us and it’s nothing we didn’t deserve to be honest. I thought the players were outstanding in the second half in particular. It took us a bit of time to grow into the game today and although goals happen, I’m so proud of the response of the players as we didn’t let it phase us and got back into the game. We tweaked a few things in terms of our outer possession at half time and I thought they executed it really, really well.
We’ve just got to have that belief and confidence from the first whistle and to know we can compete with all of these teams and when we do it together, we are much more effective at it. There were scenarios where we could have pressed a little bit more effectively in the first half and essentially, I just wanted them to believe in that a little bit more and do that together. They put that into practice in the second half and I think when we set the tone for that it put Manchester United on the backfoot, and the momentum massively shifted it our favour.
I'm delighted with Vivi and the goal
It was a superb team goal, and we definitely executed the game plan of the timing of the pass to get in behind. Vivi [Asseyi’s] finish was outstanding, left foot, weaker foot apparently, which clearly, it’s not. It’s a great finish.
In those pockets of space in front of their defensive line was somewhere we were trying to exploit a little bit more. It didn’t always go our way with that but when we got that opportunity, Emma [Snerle] has tried to open up the weak side and it’s enabled Vivi to get in behind. She’s in great form and has been playing consistently well since the turn of the new year, so she deserves it.
Building our home form is an important part of what we're doing here.
We want to make sure we do that [have strong home form], so we need to make sure when we play at this ground that we give absolutely everything. We want the fans to be on board this journey with us and want to give something back to them every time we are playing.
Now we are starting to see that it [Chigwell Construction Stadium] is becoming more of a difficult place to come. I think that’s something that is going to be very important for us for the remainder of the season and moving forward as a club.
The fans were fantastic again today.
There was a big crowd again and that’s obviously becoming more consistent for us which is massive as we wanted to do that this year as well, to create a style of football that people want to come and watch and ensure they can see the attitude and approach of the players all the time.
We are getting more fans now. They’re getting louder and that’s spurring us on. It’s a cycle that is absolutely imperative for the way we want to move forward, that they come on this journey with us.
