Abbey-Leigh Stringer said that West Ham United women's team can be pleased with their second half performance in their Barclays Women's Super League defeat to Arsenal, but that they need to find a way to convert that into points moving forward.
The Hammers were beaten 3-0 by the Gunners on Sunday, after a strike from Frida Maanum and a double from Beth Mead all hit the back of the net before the half time whistle sounded.
Stringer and her teammates had their opportunities though, with Viviane Asseyi hitting the woodwork twice during the contest, whilst Izzy Atkinson had a chance right at the end of the match that she couldn't steer on target.
There were passages of play where the Hammers really caused the home side issues, moving the ball well from left to right, and creating opportunities for Asseyi and Riko Ueki to attack.
Whilst the scoreline on paper isn't one that shines fondly on Rehanne Skinner's team, Stringer believes that the performance shown can be a catalyst heading into the final two matches of 2023, which will see West Ham take on Everton (Sunday 10 December) and Leicester City (17 December) before the Christmas break.
In the first half we did well, but in the second half we were even better
I thought we kept the ball really well, we created chances, we pressed high, and in the end, we caused Arsenal a few problems.
But it's also about making sure that we cut out the errors, because today, I think there were errors that caused their goals. So, if we cut them out moving forward, we can start gaining points and moving up the table.
We had big chances tonight
It’s about putting them in the back of the net ultimately. I think we hit the post twice so for us, we need to find a way of being more clinical. That's in both boxes, and the manager keeps talking to us about doing that.
Tonight, we played some good football and caused Arsenal some real problems, especially for the last 25 minutes, I thought we were quite on top. So yeah, Arsenal are a good team. But I thought today, we did bring the game to them.
We're putting in good performances but we also need to find a way to pick up points
I think we really gave the game to them. I think everyone on the pitch I thought played really well today and the subs that came on as well. It was a team performance. And overall, we can take away that we had a good performance.
Moving forward, we need to make sure like we said we need to get the ball in the back of the net because we're putting a performance in, but we just need to make sure that we get rewarded for it.
We have to come back from the international break and make sure we're ready to pick up some points
Like I said, we're putting out performances at the moment. So yeah, so hopefully we can get start getting the three points because we've deserved them in a lot of matches this season with the performances we've produced.
This second half performance will give us confidence, and we've got to use that heading into the final two matches of the calendar year.
We have the break now, which will give those that are staying behind a week of good work out on the training pitch. Those that are going away will also be working hard, so I'm sure we'll all be ready when we link up again in ten days time.
