West Ham head coach Rehanne Skinner reacts to her side’s heavy 4-0 defeat against Cheslea in the Women’s Super League (WSL).
The Irons got off to an extremely difficult start at Chigwell Construction Stadium as Chelsea put themselves 3-0 up within the first 15 minutes.
“Overall, we obviously had a spell in the first half that made our life really difficult,” Skinner reflected. “When we’ve conceded three goals in such a short space of time, I don’t think we necessarily started the game in the way that we wanted to. Defensively, and not just talking about defenders, the whole team, just the way that we were set up. We didn’t get enough pressure on the ball at key moments.
“Obviously the goals come from that, because we’ve just given them too much time and space. So that spell was quite disappointing, but I think after we had a player sent off, I thought we were completely different team, just more grit, determination, much more what I’m kind of used to dealing with, with this group of players, to be honest. In terms of not giving up on anything, not wanting to concede any other chances and that kind of got us into half time.
“Then in the second half, I thought we did a really good job diligently defending, which you accept you’re gonna have to do for a bit. Takes a lot of concentration, bodies on the line. I thought they did a really good job of that. Obviously we created chances throughout the game, which, unfortunately, when you don’t take you kind of put yourself in a tough spot. So we had chances. Don’t think it would change the outcome of the game, but obviously we’ve had chances to score.”
West Ham must begin to control games says Skinner
West Ham were not offered any more help after a rough hair pull on Alyssa Thompson saw Inès Belloumou sent off the pitch in the opening half. Skinner confirmed that she “didn’t get a clear view of it when I was out on the pitch, and I haven’t had chance to see it back yet.”
The head coach touched on her side’s habit of starting games slowly, and how she hopes West Ham will improve that going forward.
“We had a few challenges with this at the first half of last season, where we were a bit slow to the start for the first 20 minutes of game. Bit by bit, we managed to chip away at that. So obviously, that’s something that we need to focus on. I’m not saying it’s cost us in that time frame in the games that we’ve played previously, but we’re just not complete in a whole 90 minutes at the moment. That’s our biggest challenge.
“So obviously that’s something that we need to try and address quickly to be able to not obviously, have the spells like we did today. But ultimately, I do know that they’ll always react in adversity, and that’s that’s important, but we want to try and be in a position where we’re kind of controlling the game a little bit more before we get to that point.”
The emphatic loss now sees West Ham remain one of two teams without a point to their name so far this WSL season, now sitting in last place in the standings with a -12 goal difference. West Ham will now turn their attention towards a home clash against Aston Villa in their attempts to kickstart their 2025/26 WSL campaign.
