Rehanne Skinner has insisted her West Ham United women’s team need no motivation for their London derby clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
The Hammers return to Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) action following two weekends without a fixture, with their last game coming when Manuela Paví’s late heroics earned the Irons a deserved 1-1 draw against Manchester City at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
That point created a new home record for the women’s team and they will hope to add to the 14 points already chalked up in east London when Robert Vilahamn’s Spurs travel to Dagenham for Sunday’s early kick-off, live in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
This will be the third time the two teams have faced off this campaign, with the most recent meeting coming in the quarter-finals of the Subway® Women’s League Cup in January. The clash at Brisbane Road was one to remember, as goals from Seraina Piubel and Kirsty Smith helped the Hammers come from behind to knock one of their closest rivals out of the competition.
On that winter evening, the Irons were ruthless in attack and Skinner will want to see more of the same against her former side this weekend. The Hammers boss spent two-and-a-half seasons in charge of the Lilywhites and guided them to their highest-ever finish in England’s top flight, finishing the 2021/22 campaign fifth.
Speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon at a sunny Chadwell Heath, the manager admitted Spurs will pose a tough test despite their downturn in form, which has seen them lose five matches on the bounce in all competitions. Skinner also spoke about the feel-good factor in east London as well as what she wants to see from her side in their upcoming fixtures.
Here are the main talking points from the presser…
We're in a really good place
I think the biggest things for us is we've been in a really good place with the way that we're defending and pressing, the way that we've been playing forwards with speed and the quality we've had going into attacking situations. We really want to continue that in preparation for the last six games of the season.
In football, it's frustrating when you don't get the points when you're performing well, and that's the bit where you've got to be really measured and consistent within the team, and the emotions that can be attached sometimes.
There's so many things that we are doing well. It's important to highlight those and to keep learning and developing. But there’s a lot of belief and confidence in the team and I think we've got a real clear understanding of what we're trying to do.
You need games to be able to gel and to be able to get those things right, and you can't do that in the first five games of the season when you add such big changes to the squad, so it does take time.
The progress we've made in the last 18 months has been significant. We're in a good place and we want to finish the season strongly.
We've still got the feel-good factor from the Manchester City game
We've come off of the last four games feeling like we've really given everything a good go, a good account of ourselves. I think that naturally rolls itself over into being really keen to play the next game and wanting to get on the pitch.
We're at home, it's a big thing, it's a London derby. There are so many incentives for the game and, when you've got a playing group like this group, you don't need a lot of motivational factors.
You don't really need to talk about a lot of those things. They [the players] just know.
Anything can happen in a London derby
Everybody wants to win these games and they're going to want to get points. You expect the unexpected, really.
So regardless of what state they're [Tottenham] in at the moment, we fully expect a difficult game. I think Robert [Vilahamn] will be working hard to make sure they're focused on the game against us.
We want to make sure that we do our bit to get the points at home in front of our fans.
We want to see more of the same against Tottenham and Chelsea
I just think we've just got to keep doing more of the same. We've got to be consistent. We've got six games where we want to get as many points as we possibly can.
Performance matters, the players all know that, and I think that's going to be the biggest thing for us, to just continue playing to our strengths.
