Rehanne Skinner has urged her West Ham United women’s team to soak up the celebrations from their last-gasp draw at Barclays Women’s Super League leaders Chelsea.
After the Hammers fell two goals down in the space of five first-half minutes, Shekiera Martinez finished an excellent move minutes before the break to give the visitors a route back into the contest.
Having grown into the game throughout the second half and forced Hannah Hampton into making some smart saves, West Ham duly got their deserved equaliser, and it was Martinez again - the Germany U23 international popping up at the back post to turn Kirsty Smith’s wicked ball into the far corner.
Not one team had travelled to Chelsea and taken a point off them in the WSL this term, that of course being until Skinner’s side descended on Kingsmeadow on Sunday. In her 50th game in charge of the Irons, the manager couldn’t have wished for a better end to her landmark fixture in the dugout.
Speaking post-last-minute drama, Skinner hailed the confidence and composure of her goalscorer, who chalked up her fourth and fifth goals in the league since the turn of the year, and once again praised the never-say-die attitude flowing through her team at the moment.
The Hammers are up to seventh in the WSL standings, and Skinner let her pride for her side be known following the heroics at Kingsmeadow.
I'm so proud of the team.
I'm delighted with the players' performance as the game went on. I’m really, really proud of the team. It’s a huge moment for us. We got a late goal against City, and I think we just showed how good we can be for the longevity of the game.
We're just playing well, consistently well, and we've got multiple people who can score goals. At the end of the game, Amber [Tysiak] was playing as our right centre-half, and she was in the final third, finding through balls in the last few minutes. That's how much we want to win games, and that kind of sums up the quality and the character within the team.
We're disappointed with the first 20 minutes. We want to start brighter than that. We put ourselves under the pump, but we've shown the character to be able to come back from that. We're absolutely delighted with the point, and ultimately, what I'm saying is we always want to get better. That's one of our ways that we can keep improving.
Shekiera took her goals phenomenally well.
That first goal has got to be up for Goal of the Month, with Riko’s [Ueki’s] assist as well. She's taken it phenomenally well with her chest and then hitting it early. I think it's a fantastic goal, and it gave us a lot of confidence going in at half-time.
I think we came out better in the second half again today, and that's caused some problems. Our substitutes had a massive impact, and I think that's then led us to be in a position where we can get the points.
I'm delighted for her [Martinez] to get on the score sheet again. She's been a fantastic asset to our team.
We have to celebrate these moments.
You've got to celebrate these moments. I think we all stay really consistent in the way that we approach things all the time. But there are moments where you've just got to be really, really delighted with what you've got yourself into. It's just a massive opportunity to celebrate.
We have been playing well, and it amounts to a massive point in the game that nobody would have expected us to have got today, except for us, because we had the belief that we'd be able to get something.
Credit to all the players and staff.
I'm really pleased for the team and proud of the performance, and credit goes to the players and all the staff that work solidly behind the scenes. It's been hard, and [we've been] improving, and obviously we're in a really great place now, 50 games down the line.
