Rehanne Skinner insisted her side are taking huge confidence from their sensational display at Gaughan Group Stadium into their Barclays Women’s Super League showdown at home to Everton on Sunday.
The Hammers have to swiftly move from their Subway® Women’s League Cup quarter-final success to WSL action, with the visit of the ninth-placed Toffees presenting an opportunity for the Irons to get off the mark in the league in 2025.
The manager was delighted with her side’s display against Tottenham Hotspur, as goals from Seraina Piubel and Kirsty Smith helped to complete a first-half turnaround.
The quarter-final tie also saw Shekiera Martinez receive her full debut in Claret and Blue, and the Germany U23 international shone in east London, linking up well with strike partner Emma Harries on multiple occasions - including for the Hammers’ all-important equaliser.
Skinner was asked about how impressed she has been with the forward since her return to Chadwell Heath, in her pre-Everton press conference. And Skinner was quick to hail Martinez, as well as state how her side will focus on themselves ahead of Sunday’s game.
We're confident from progressing to the Subway® Women’s League Cup semi-finals
I was delighted with the performance on Wednesday night. There were opportunities for people because we weren’t our normal selves against Chelsea, and I think it was a really good game for us.
Big parts of the game we did really well, and that’s put us in a good position for the games we have coming up. We want to win as many games as we possibly can, and [get] the belief and confidence that comes from that.
It’s not an excuse, playing against that Chelsea team when you’ve not had a competitive game is a shock to the system for a lot of people. Tottenham’s pressing structure is very different to Chelsea's, Chelsea don’t give you three seconds to breathe. I thought we utilised space and found good opportunities to get behind [against Tottenham].
That’s definitely built confidence within the team. When we know we’re doing bits in the game that we want to do well, that’s what builds confidence. The result, moving into a semi-final, is obviously a big boost for the team.
There's been a lot of conversations with the players about these opportunities for them to get more minutes. The more you fight for things, the more you make life difficult for people, and training standards have been excellent. We then put ourselves in the best position to be able to compete like that all the time, and I was delighted with the result and the way we went about the game.
Shekiera Martinez has started brilliantly
She's [Martinez] hit the ground running. In a short space of time, she's gone straight into the Chelsea game, she's then come on and been in a position to play on Wednesday. I think all that's going to happen is we'll just see more and more of her as she settles into the league a little bit more.
The difference in physicality in Germany and England is not too different. Obviously it's [the league] really tough, so I think that's going to be an adjustment to the consistency of week-in, week-out performances. That's something everybody's got to be able to do in our league.
But she's started brilliantly. Her pass to Emma Harries for the goal on Wednesday was excellent.
We have to focus on ourselves when preparing for Everton
Obviously with the personnel they've brought in, there's opportunities for formational changes and things like that.
I think we've just got to take it as it comes really, and you can only prepare so much when there's only been one game in a slightly different set-up. We're ready for what they're capable of, we know what their new players are like.
But I think from our side, we also have to focus on ourselves, and the things that we've done well, because that's the only thing that we can really control to the best of our ability.
Every window we want to strengthen the squad
We're constantly looking to strengthen the squad, I've said that before. I think we want to make sure that we cover key positions, and there's definitely some areas that we want to keep evolving within the squad.
Every window is really important because we've needed to evolve the squad as part of the project really, so every window we want to take the opportunity to do that. If we can do that in this one, we definitely will.
