Manager Rehanne Skinner has heaped praise on her West Ham United women’s team for showing the rest of the Barclays Women’s Super League what they are capable of in March, as they strive to continue their impressive run of form when Manchester United visit east London on Saturday.
On paper, fixtures against Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea looked like it could prove a difficult month for the women’s team. But they embraced that challenge and saw it as an opportunity to flex their muscles against some of the WSL’s toughest opponents.
Despite coming away empty handed at Meadow Park, Skinner’s side went toe-to-toe with second-place Arsenal at the start of the month, scoring three goals and giving the Gunners a run for their money in an unfortunate 4-3 defeat.
After conceding late at home to the Citizens, they dug deep to conjure up a second-half stoppage-time equaliser via a brilliant Manuela Paví strike to earn a point against the visitors, before playing host to neighbours Tottenham Hotspur in east London. Scoring twice in a clean-sheet victory, the Irons swept their London rivals aside thanks to an own-goal and a Viviane Asseyi free-kick.
Rounding off the month in style, West Ham descended on Kingsmeadow and came from two goals down to equalise right at the death thanks to a Shekiera Martinez brace, which helped her become the WSL’s Player of the Month. The statement performance saw the Hammers become the first team in WSL history to come from two goals behind to avoid defeat against the reigning champions.
Skinner - speaking to the media in her pre-match press conference - admitted another tough opponent awaits on Saturday, in the form of third-place Manchester United, but stated her squad have full belief and confidence they can achieve another positive result in Dagenham.
The manager also gave an update on team news, as well as praising Finland international midfielder Oona Siren for how quickly she has adapted to the pace of the WSL, and her consistent performances in Claret and Blue since arriving in the summer.
Here are the main talking points from the presser…
The players came through the international break with no injuries
Everybody's [apart from Jess Ziu] available, so we're in a good position again. We've managed to get through the international break in a good position, so everyone's ready to go.
I've been delighted with the attitude of the players
I've been really pleased with the players' attitude and approach. I think training's been excellent. It's allowed us to have a lot of belief and confidence in what we're doing and to be able to execute that [gameplan] more regularly. But knowing that we've got substitutes that can also do that has been a lot better.
The squad is really competitive and everyone's fit, so keeping everybody on their toes is important. I think that’s led to us improving our capabilities of delivering that winning mentality and never-say-die attitude. It’s been a work in progress, but obviously we're in a great space.
We want to finish the season strongly. We need to be able to show that we can be competitive consistently through to the end of the season.
Manchester United will provide another tough test
I actually think they've [Manchester United] been talked about very little in this whole season, given everything that they've done throughout the course of the year. They are a force to be reckoned with and I think the points differential on the board shows that, to be honest. They're a tough team and we're expecting a really hard game.
We had a positive game against Chelsea, we've got to go and do it again, and that's going to be really important for us in front of our home fans.
The results over March have given us a lot of confidence
I think our last seven games have given us a lot of confidence, with the amount of wins and draws that we've had in the period of time, the points we've picked up. March could have been really, really difficult for us when we first looked at the fixture list. But actually, all that's happened is the players have seen it as an opportunity to get results, to get points, to show what we're capable of.
That's the bit that's really given us confidence, because we've performed in every single game.
Coming back from 2-0 down against Chelsea when, historically, that's not happened to Chelsea for a period of time, is something that the players can take a huge amount of pride in. That gives us confidence and belief to know that we can do it in other settings.
The way Siren has adapted to the WSL has been phenomenal
Oona [Siren] obviously came out of the Swedish league and the difference in the pace of the league [compared to the WSL] is quite significant. The time it's taken her to adapt to the league is phenomenal, quite frankly.
When we talk about players coming into the WSL, they often need three-to-six months to adjust, and so that wouldn't have been surprising [if she needed that time]. But that absolutely hasn't happened for Oona.
Her possession-retention rates are phenomenal - not just within the WSL, but [compared] across the world. She is really, really high up in terms of what she gives the team and she's helped us to build possession better, to look after the ball more.
She gets around the pitch unbelievably well and out of possession, she's given us a real energy in the centre of the park. She's very unassuming and gets her head down and doesn't really say a lot, but just does her job really, really well every single day.
From a consistency level, that is so, so hard to do in this game, and she's produced that week in, week out. I don't think she's maybe been noticed as much as she should have.
