Rehanne Skinner praised the reaction of West Ham United women's team in training this week during her press conference ahead of Manchester United.
The Hammers boss was speaking to the press at Chadwell Heath training ground, home of the women's team, whom have shown intensity and quality in the eyes of Skinner this week after losing out to Bristol City in Barclays Women's Super League action last weekend.
The team now prepare to travel north to Manchester to face Marc Skinner's side, who are unbeaten so far in league action, winning two and drawing three in their first five games.
Speaking to the media on Thursday ahead of the fixture, Skinner spoke about the reaction from last weekend's defeat, facing off against the Red Devils, additional time and provided an update on team news heading into the game.
Reflecting on training this week
We were disappointed last weekend because we've been performing well, grafting and showing what we're about in terms of intensity, and we didn't quite produce that.
This week we needed to reflect on the game and review that, which we did. We've got some real clear thought process in terms of what we want to do moving forwards this week.
The reaction in training has been excellent, the intensity was superb. It's a learning curve for us and and we're ready to move onto the next game.
On preparations for facing Manchester United
I watched the game [against Brighton & Hove Albion]. I thought Brighton did really well and they got a good result out of the game and I thought they probably could have gone on and made sure that they secured the win to be honest.
There's a lot of teams stepping up and being really effective this year. We need to focus on what we're trying to do so that we can utilise our strengths in areas that we know that we can against United.
We need to limit the things that they've been doing that are obvious trends as well, so it's important that we control what we can control and play in a way that we think is going to benefit us the most.
I think the biggest thing for us following on from last weekend is that we've got to make sure that we deliver on what we're setting out to do. In terms of our preparation, we understand what their shape and structure looks like, the players that they have, we know all of those things.
But ultimately, it comes down to performance on the day, and in every game that we play, we're trying to be the best version of ourselves.
So that's something that we need to bring to the table, and if we do that then we will make life difficult for them with the quality of players that we have.
I've got confidence in all of our players to be able to respond from the weekend and deliver the best performance that we can. Hopefully that will give us the opportunity to get some points out of the game as well!
Added time, playing until the end and late goals
It's huge to be able to work right until the end, the game isn't 90 minutes anymore either. It's a bit of a transition for players to continue to play through for another 15 or 20 minutes when you add the first and second half extra time together.
The biggest thing about the game is that you have to keep recognising parts of momentum that you know you can influence and impact. In our circumstances, the finishers have made a difference in the team, which comes down to the depth of the squad and everyone knowing what their roles are.
When they step out onto the pitch, they're able to step into the game at the same level that it is being played and actually bring something extra to it as well. Sometimes it's hard to come off the bench and meet the pace of the game, but our finishers have been doing that really effectively so far this season.
An update on team news
The challenges that we faced last weekend were around international travel and the impact that it had on quite a few players who had traveled long distances.
Everybody is back on track and is in a really good place. We've managed to get Jess Ziu back, with her coming on against Bristol City. So at the moment, longer term it's just Dagný Brynjarsdóttir and Emma Snerle who are unavailable.
