On the second weekend of the Barclays Women’s Super League West Ham United held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw this afternoon at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
While a draw may be disappointing for the visitors, the home side rallied well to earn a point- their first of the season. After the match The Halfway Line had the chance to speak with West Ham head Coach Rehanne Skinner about what she made of the early season encounter.
She noted “It was a little bit end to end, it was a little bit transitional at times I think that we probably just needed to manage a bit but we were so keen to be on the front foot and be positive on the ball, I think that’s what probably created that.”
West Ham went a goal down within seven minutes after Liverpool pounced on sloppy defensive play by the Hammers. Skinner bemoaned the concession “[We’re] disappointed with the goal, obviously I think we could have impacted that a bit better.”
As the match wore on, West Ham grew into the game and a brilliant Riko Ueki header levelled proceedings before both sides traded blows in search of a winner late on. Skinner seemed delighted with the response from her squad when expressing, “Most important is how well we’ve shown spirit, fight and determination to stay in it and to keep it close and it ultimately come (away) with a goal. It says a lot when the players are disappointed they’ve not got a second goal at the end. But look a point is important and I think we earned it.”
A smile was cast wide across Skinner’s face when asked about her goalscorer today in Japanese striker Riko Ueki. Skinner beamed “Every time she’s played them [Liverpool] she’s scored so you can’t ask for more than that, can you? I thought she did really well, one of the things that we are trying to do is make sure the relationships and understanding the way that she plays goes through the whole team.
And I don’t know that we always find her as well as we probably could because her movement is outstanding. It just shows when we get her into key areas she’s really effective at what she does, its something we want to keep building on with more bodies around this year looking for those opportunities to connect with her so that will help us.”
When asked about getting the first point of the season. Skinner acknowledged the challenges the side have faced, emphasising how brilliant this point was for the team.
She expressed, “Every game is tough and as I’ve said before we’ve got a lot of new players in the building and a lot of players whose first language is not English. It takes time to settle players in and often people don’t appreciate how hard it is for a player to move to a new country and learn a new playing style but every game we’ll get better and they will settle in a little bit easier and we will keep improving from here.”
Understanding all of this is one of the key challenges of navigating football as the truly international sport it is today, when asked how the process is going, Skinner was quick to concede that it is a work in progress.
She emphasised, “I think we need a little bit more time. We are still trying to be more really positive with what we are doing. I think naturally defensively everybody wants to make sure that we have 101 different solutions to things, that’s okay but it can make you a bit negative at times. I want players to believe in their in possession responsibilities and actually we dictate the game in that way swell. Whilst being secure at the back.”
Today marked the first competitive home game where Katrina Gorry captained West Ham and Skinner was brimming with praise for her captain, “Every game that she played last season she was influential in. What you see is what you get with mini (Gorry) she plays with her heart on her sleeve and she leads the same way, she’s not asking anybody to do things that she’s not prepared to do and i think that goes a long way, players have got a huge amount of respect for her and I think she’s highly influential for the team both on and off the pitch and I thought she was fantastic today.”
On Gorry’s contentious yellow card for dissent Skinner was dismissive “I don’t think it was a yellow card she never even touched her. You can’t get booked for something you haven’t done.”
Skinner also spared a word on new signing Manuela Pavi who was able to get around 20 minutes on the pitch in the second half. The head coach expressed “She’s got loads of energy she’s very very technical on the ball, she’s difficult to defend against. We are building up her minutes so that she is more available to the team and that is coming along nicely, so we’ll get more and more with her. We’re still trying to work on how we communicate but obviously she is picking it up and obviously you can see the quality she has.”
Looking ahead to next week lying in wait is the ominous task of an away trip to Manchester City, but Skinner was eager to take things one at a time. She remarked “We’ve got the game mid week [against] Portsmouth in the Conti Cup, that gives us an opportunity to get more bodies on the pitch that will be important for the team, we want to make sure the whole squad is getting opportunities to evolve within what we are trying to do and that better prepares us for Manchester City as we have got more people with more minutes in their legs.”
Interestingly, West Ham’s head coach confirmed the club are hoping to host a game at the London Stadium this year. She said, “The club is determined to get a game there (London Stadium) this season.” She also acknowledged the challenges that will accompany that ambition when saying “Ultimately it is still complicated as we do not own the stadium” she noted.
After a difficult start to the season I was curious as to how West Ham were able to bounce back so well today, and Skinner responded when asked, “You’ve got to be realistic about the process we are going through, last weekend I think that the scoreline did not reflect the performance. We had four very good chances in the game and we didn’t take them, so there is things to learn from and things we can build on from that.”
The West Ham head coach noted that “there is things that we did excellent today, there are things that we want to improve on” Skinner continued “week in week out we’ll learn from it and we’ll keep improving.” Skinner’s side certainly improved this week and will hope they can continue that trajectory despite their tricky fixture run at the start of this season.
