Rehanne Skinner says her West Ham United women’s team will be driven by the incentive of reaching the Subway® Women’s League Cup final when they take on Chelsea on Wednesday evening.
The Hammers will take on the Blues at Kingsmeadow in the semi-finals, looking to book their place in the showpiece for the first time in their history, having made the semi-finals on two previous occasions.
The women’s team’s journey to the last four started in October, with a 6-1 rout of Portsmouth before Skinner's side defeated London City Lionesses 4-1 a month later. Southampton were the Irons’ next group-stage victims in December, when the Saints left Chigwell Construction Stadium with a 3-0 loss.
With the Group C fixtures complete and the table topped, the Hammers travelled to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the quarter-finals in January and completed a first-half turnaround to run out 2-1 winners - booking Wednesday’s tie with Chelsea.
Sonia Bompastor’s side were given a bye to the quarter-finals due to their UEFA Champions League endeavors, and the Blues subsequently dispatched Durham 5-0 to seal their own semi-final spot.
The Hammers boss was asked what it would mean to take the Club to a final, and she stated it would be a reward for her side’s hard work, dedication and progression over the past 18 months. Skinner's players have done incredibly well to get to this stage, topping the competition’s scoring charts in the process, and they will give it everything they can to be one of the two teams walking out at Pride Park in March.
Here are the main talking points from Skinner’s pre-match press conference...
Reaching the final would be a massive achievement
We’re in a situation where there’s an opportunity to get to the final, which is a massive incentive and motivation for the players. We’ve not made it to the League Cup final before, so that's a massive thing we want to strive towards. Our preparations are the same, and it’s eleven versus eleven, anything can happen.
We’d be delighted [to reach the final], it would be a massive achievement for the Club and a reward for all the hard work that everyone’s put in and the progress we’ve made over the past 18 months. This is an an opportuity for us to grab hold of and show what we're about. It would be massive for the fans as well.
There's more expectation and pressure on Chelsea
We’ve spoken about their [Chelsea's] quality before, and that makes it a challenge. But every team sets out to win games, and that’s what we’ll be trying to do. We’ve got a point to prove, as we didn’t play to our best in the last game against them [losing 5-0 in the Barclays Women's Super League on 19 January]. We’re in a better position in the way that we’re trying to play, but we were too passive, and gave them too much time and space, and we want to rectify that.
We’ve got nothing to lose. There’s more pressure and expectation on them than there is on us. I’ve said to the players, we have to be confident in who we are and how we play, and give a good account of ourselves. Stranger things have happened, so let's see what we can do.
Apart from the most recent game [against Chelsea], I think we’ve made it difficult for them on a number of occasions. We played more aggressive football, on the front foot, which I think we lacked in the last game. We need to stick to our identity in this game.
The players at Chelsea pose a big challenge, with Emma [Hayes] or Sonia [Bompastor], their squad is built for the Champions League. The way they move, their technicians, those are the bits we have to solve. That takes a significant amount of concentration. We want to give a better account of ourselves than last time.
We're delighted to be the competition's top scorers
Vivi [Asseyi]'s been fantastic. Her form has improved as the season’s gone on. Were delighted we’ve got the most goals in the competition, we’ve got lots of players who can score goals, and the more their relationships evolve, the more chances we get.
Verena and Eva are top professionals
Both players [Verena Hanshaw and Eva Nyström] are top-quality players with a lot of experience. They're bright footballers, talented, and their style of play suits ours as well - they’re picking that up really quickly. It just takes time to build relationships with people.
We’ve had a lot of games, which is great, but then you don’t have as much time on the training pitch with each other. They’re top professionals and every game they’ll get better and better.
