Spurs Women fall to disappointing derby defeat

Spurs Women suffered a heavy 6-1 defeat against a clinical Arsenal side in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) at Meadow Park on Sunday (18 October).

In a tough afternoon in Borehamwood against the league leaders, we found ourselves 5-0 down at the interval, with a mountain to climb, following goals from Katie McCabe, a hat-trick from Vivianne Miedema, and Caitlin Foord, who also went on to score again for the hosts after the break.

After a rare penalty miss from Rianna Dean early in the second half, substitute Lucia Leon scored a consolation goal with 13 minutes remaining of the match, before youngster Elisha Sulola, who signed her first professional contract with the Club last month, came off the bench for her WSL debut.

Karen Hills and Juan Amoros made four changes to the side who lost 1-0 to Manchester United at The Hive last weekend with Kerys Harrop, Anna Filbey, Lucy Quinn and Dean making the starting line-up.

Arsenal took an early lead after four minutes when McCabe curled a left-footed free-kick past Becky Spencer into the top corner.

The hosts doubled their lead three minutes later when Miedema darted into the box after playing a one-two with Danielle van de Donk before slotting the ball home.

At the other end of the pitch, Dean tried her luck from long-range, forcing a good save from Manuela Zinsberger who tipped the ball over the crossbar, before Foord converted Arsenal’s third goal into the bottom left corner after 15 minutes, following a long ball from Leah Williamson.

With nine minutes to go of the first half, Miedema scored once again when she latched onto McCabe’s short free-kick to fire the ball past Spencer.

Karen and Juan made a double change before half time as Leon and Rosella Ayane replaced Gemma Davison and Quinn, but it wasn’t long after that Miedema went on to complete her hat-trick and give the hosts a comfortable 5-0 lead at the break.

After coming off the bench in the first half, Leon won a penalty five minutes after the restart when she was brought down by McCabe in the penalty area.

Dean, our top scorer for the last two consecutive seasons, stepped up to take the spot-kick but saw her effort saved at the bottom right corner by Zinsberger.

Foord went on to score her second goal of the afternoon from close range in the 65th minute after Beth Mead sent a low cross in from the right.

Leon pulled one back late on with a header from second half substitute Siri Worm’s corner but it was too little too late for Karen and Juan’s side at Meadow Park.

Coach's view

At full-time, Head Coach Juan Amoros said: “We are disappointed, and I think we need to apologise to our fans for that first half. We really worked hard during the week, we worked on a lot of things that needed to be better and I think that goal really hurt us at the beginning of the game, after that we couldn’t find our feet. We showed no passion or desire in that first half. The second half we did so much better but it was too late after being 5-0 down at half-time, which is not acceptable for us as a team and we will look at ourselves and put it right because we believe in this group of players.”

Match data 

Goals: Arsenal – McCabe 4, Miedema 7, 36, 41, Foord 15, 65; Spurs – Leon 77.

Yellow cards: Arsenal – McCabe 76; Spurs – Harrop 36, Dean 61, Percival 67.

Referee: Abigail Byrne.

Venue: Meadow Park, Borehamwood.

Weather: Overcast, 12 degrees.

Attendance: Behind closed doors.