Karen Hills: ‘Important to reflect and prepare for what’s next’

Spurs Women Head Coach Karen Hills says the squad will learn and continue to push forward following a 6-0 defeat against Barclays FA Women’s Super League holders Arsenal in a pre-season friendly at Meadow Park on Sunday.

Jill Roord scored a hat-trick for the hosts, while Jennifer Beattie, Jordan Nobbs and Vivianne Miedema bagged the other goals for Joe Montemurro’s side in the north London derby.

Chloe Morgan replaced injured Becky Spencer in goal as reserve team goalkeeper Megan Drew was named on the substitutes’ bench.

The home side dominated the possession but could only find a way through our defence from two set-pieces in the first half– both Roord and Beattie converted for Arsenal from corner kicks.

The Gunners brought on England star Nobbs at the break and within five minutes, she made it 3-0 on her return from injury, before World Cup runner-up Miedema got the fourth and Roord completed her hat-trick.

At full-time, Hills said: “We lost to a strong side, but we’re going to keep pushing forward and we’ll get better and better. In the first half, I was disappointed to concede two goals from two set-pieces. I thought we were doing well in defence to hold them and they didn’t create many clear-cut opportunities, but it just took them two corners to go ahead. We’ve got to be better in situations like that, because we were poor and switched off. For us now, it’s important to reflect on the performance and prepare for what’s next. These are the kind of games we’ll be playing in week in, week out, so our players need to get used to the standard and be more aggressive.”

Head Coach Juan Amoros added: “We knew that today was going to be a tough challenge and it’s obviously disappointing to lose but for us, we are learning. We know the standard is a big step up from last season and we are going to be playing against some of the best players in the world – we want to compete with them so we’ll look at the positives and the negatives, move on from it and improve.”

Match data

Goals: Arsenal- Roord 5, 64, 73, Beattie 21, Nobbs 50, Miedema 59.

Venue: Meadow Park, Boreham Wood FC.