Rehanne Skinner strongly believes her West Ham United women’s team deserved more out of their 3-1 London-derby defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors gave absolutely everything in north London, but Drew Spence’s effort in second-half stoppage time ultimately condemned Skinner’s charges to disappointment on the final day of the Barclays Women's Super League season.
Robert Vilahamn's Spurs side established an early lead through Beth England, only for Riko Ueki to bring the game level with a fantastic strike five minutes after the restart.
Jessica Naz restored the hosts’ advantage and, as the Hammers pushed for a late leveller, Spence arrowed into the far corner to seal victory for Tottenham.
We deserved more than we got.
I think we probably started the game a little bit slow to be honest. It was the last game of the season, and everyone wanted to get something out of the game. I think we were a little bit tentative in the way we set up to defend.
As the game went on, we started to control possession a little bit better, did the bits we were good at, started to press higher, created opportunities, and I think Riko [Ueki’s] goal was a fantastic finish. I think there were more chances there that we could have capitalised on in that stage.
When the second goal goes in it is a difficult one. We thought Amber [Tysiak] was clearly fouled on the edge of the box before it went in, so that is disappointing. It is difficult because the players are working really hard and there are just too many crazy decisions which is difficult for them to manage. We tried to pick ourselves up and their third goal came as a result of trying to get ourselves back in the game.
We probably haven’t been consistent enough throughout the game in terms of what we set out to achieve, but we deserved more than we got.
We showed a strong reaction in the second half.
We spoke at half-time about controlling the ball, being a bit calmer in possession and trying to play forward at the appropriate times. We were a little bit too direct without any quality in the first half. We created our goal though being a bit more composed, and I thought we had more opportunities after which we could have done more with.
That is something we are looking to take into next season, that when we do have the ball we can play, have the belief to look after it and create more chances.
The players have worked incredibly hard, and we want to improve next season.
It’s been a tiring season because there have been so many things that we wanted to do, but I think where we are at with everything behind the scenes it has given us a good platform to move forward [as a Club]. The reconstruction and organisation within the team has been key, so we now have a lot of key people who are going to raise the level of performance next season and drive us forward.
The players have worked incredibly hard and full credit to them as they have done everything, and I think that will stand us in good stead going into next year. We are in a good place.
The fans have been outstanding all season.
We wanted to go over and applaud the fans as they have followed us up and down the country, have supported us, have been really positive in the way we are trying to play and they’ve been delighted with the attacking football we have played.
Of course we want to score more goals for them and get more points, but we want them to stick with us and keep doing what they are doing because we are going to work extremely hard and show the fight and desire that is traditional at West Ham. We want them on this journey with us next season.
The hard work continues post-season!
The break for managers at this level is minimal, but of course it is important that you take that break to refresh, come back and think about what we are going to do next season. But clearly the transfer window is imperative for us, and we want to make sure we are really strong in the window.
We want to keep on adding value to the team and we’re at the key stage of that already, so we want to work hard collectively to make sure we get that right and make sure we are competitive in the league next year.
