West Ham United enjoyed an eventually comfortable Wednesday night in the Women’s League Cup, beating Portsmouth 6-1 in East London. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Rehanne Skinner’s side, but goals either side of both half time- and either side of a Viviane Asseyi double- from Emma Harries ensured the result was put beyond doubt. It was an impressive performance from the 22-year-old who has started both league games for West Ham.
Harries spoke to The Halfway Line after the game and provided her assessment of the match, expressing “Obviously being a mid-week game its a chance for people to be rotated in and I thought those players were excellent” Harries remarked.
Harries replaced debutant Ruby Doe- who went off with an injury- and was keen to mention Doe as one of many performers of the night for the Hammers when expressing “Ruby [Doe] has come in for her first professional start, obviously we’ve got new players like [Manuela] Pavi, Marnie [Morrison] Seraina [Piubel], Oona [Siren] some really good performances from them and I thought everyone was excellent today- from Meg in goal to everyone up front. So yeah, it was a really good all round performance.”
Harries was introduced from the bench against Pompey last night, but she did not need any time to warm up. Not long after her introduction, Harries received the ball from Halle Houssein’s wonderful through-ball, before taking a majestic touch and chipping the ball over the Portsmouth keeper.
I asked Harries to walk us through that magic moment, as she expressed “Obviously it wasn’t bad was it?” Harries laughed. She continued, “But no, like I said it was a great ball from Hally [Houssein] and I saw the goalie off her line a little bit and I did the rest.” Harries was keen to stress the victory was a team effort exclaiming “But like I said its not just about me the team were brilliant today and it was nice to see so many different goal scorers.”
West Ham, as much as they may deny it, have been given a favourable draw. Having been placed in a group with three Women’s Championship sides, a quarter final berth should feel like the minimum requirement. Despite this, Harries would not be drawn into looking too far ahead as she cautioned “I think we have just got to take every game as the same. I think you know, we look at different teams and maybe they are in a different league, but they pose different problems to us. We have got to treat every team with respect regardless of what league they are in.”
As for the impact that a year of management under Rehanne Skinner, Harries extolled “Yeah [I have improved] massively, last year was a massive transition year. I came from a club that I was there for about thirteen years.” She continued “I think Rehanne has definitely brought out a better version of me in terms of an all round football player and definitely filling me with confidence playing.” As for her personal goals for the season, Harries said “being more consistent” was top of the list and three brilliant performances in her first three matches is a great start.
