Highlighting how well her attacking quartet are gelling and how pleased she is with a clean sheet, Rehanne Skinner was delighted with her West Ham United women’s team’s performance from start to finish against Everton.
The Hammers picked up their first three Barclays Women’s Super League points of the calendar year with a 2-0 success at home to the Toffees on Sunday, securing the victory with a pair of first-half goals.
Shekiera Martinez, starting her first WSL game for the Irons, gave Skinner’s side the upper hand in the contest, heading home Viviane Asseyi’s corner with a clinical near-post effort after just nine minutes played at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
The home fans had to wait until the end of the first period for their second to arrive, and it came when Seraina Piubel was dragged down in the penalty area by Sara Holmgaard. Asseyi remained cool under pressure to slot the ball home into the bottom-right corner, and Everton failed to conjure up a reply in the second half.
Skinner also handed a Claret and Blue debut to new signing Verena Hanshaw, who contributed excellently to the Hammers’ first league clean sheet since early November, and the manager hailed the performance of the Austria international.
I thought we performed fantastically.
We were coming here to get the three points, and I thought the players performed fantastically from the first whistle. We created loads of opportunities, and I thought we played some great football in front of and behind their defensive line. The forward line did a great job, but defensively we were really resolute again.
Every game the attack are getting better and better.
I think it's a sign of things to come. Every game they're [the attack] just getting better and better with their relationships and working off of each other. And obviously, the bench is strong, so there are opportunities for change to add value.
But in particular, I think Riko [Ueki] coming off the front holds the ball up spectacularly well, and that then links us into other opportunities. I thought we gave their centre-halves a difficult day.
There definitely could have been more goals out of the game, that would be my only point. But that's being a manager and wanting more, right? But collectively, across the board, I thought everybody did a great job.
I'm delighted for both Shekiera and Verena.
Shekiera [Martinez], first WSL start, goal scored. Verena [Hanshaw], first WSL start, clean sheet. We're obviously trying to keep working on the quality of the squad, and we've had two players come in this window that have just been absolutely superb for us straight away. And Verena's so experienced and calm on the ball, she is so relaxed on her left foot, and I think it's just a sign of things to come. So I'm delighted for them both.
The players are so competitive.
I think we did a great job [in the first half], but the first thing that the players were saying [at half-time] was, ‘we can do this, we can add that’. Collectively, we're wanting to be better all the time, and that's obviously really pleasing because we're all trying to be really diligent with the way that we play.
That, for me, is the culture of the team now. It just sums up how competitive we are and how much we want these points. I think they delivered exactly what they needed to in the second half. The substitutes came on and made a difference in the game and ensured that we saw the game out as well.
Our response to the Chelsea defeat has been superb.
We won't be taking anything for granted [in the upcoming games]. It's important that we make sure that we keep our consistency levels the way they should be. There's everything to play for, especially on Wednesday night in the FA Cup, we could get ourselves into the fifth round.
It's worth mentioning. We weren't happy with the result against Chelsea, or the performance, but the response has been absolutely superb.
And that probably kick-started us in a not particularly pleasant way. But it's led to us really grinding out these two results and making sure that we've shown the quality that we have, which obviously is pleasing. We want to carry that on.
