Rehanne on Brighton: “It’s going to be a battle”
Fri 08 October 2021, 17:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Four wins from four and second in the table, Spurs Women are flying high in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) and looking to continue their unbeaten start to the season away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday (2pm kick-off). We caught up with Head Coach Rehanne Skinner to get her thoughts ahead of the game...
A 2-0 win and a professional performance against Leicester last weekend. How was our Head Coach feeling about our unbeaten start?
“Absolutely, we are delighted with the points that we have and we’re in a position in the table that we have worked incredibly hard for. I couldn’t be more pleased for the players and staff who worked so hard in pre-season to be able to tee things up in the way that they have to get the results that we have. We have had some great performances within that as well and that’s led us to take those opportunities when they crop up and got us points on the board. Let’s hope we can keep it going!”
Another game and another goal for forward Rachel Williams. Rachel is very experienced and has been a part of the league since its inception since 2011. She jokes that her nickname is the ‘Dinosaur’ but Rehanne had to agree she's looking so sharp this season...
“Last season Rachel obviously had a few injury issues that meant that you couldn’t really see her to the best of her ability. We have worked hard, as has she, to get herself in the best possible physical shape over the course of pre-season to then be coming back and doing the things she’s well known for. She’s a handful, she’s experienced and she adds massive value to the team in that respect. She’s been in the league a while, but those experiences give her the opportunity to take advantage of situations and chances that she’s taken in the opening games.”
It’s not just up top where we are firing, but our back line also deserve credit as we currently have the best defensive record in the league, having kept three clean sheets and conceded only one goal. How pleasing is that for Rehanne?
“We’re in a mindset where the team works incredibly hard from front to back. Ultimately, everyone has to play their part in that to enable us to be in a position to defend effectively. When we get that right in front of the back four, the back four’s job is a little bit easier. But make no mistake, they are putting their bodies on the line and they work really, really hard to ensure that we take pride in those clean sheets and that’s definitely something we want to do and stick to moving forward.
“Everybody that has gone into that back line has had the same approach and certainly, in front of that, we have had Mav [Clemaron] and Ria [Percival] who have also contributed to making sure they are protected and supported in the way that we need to. Across the team, I think our performances have been really pleasing and we’re limiting time and space for other teams to penetrate in certain areas which is making it difficult for them and more predictable for us. Ultimately, we’ve been able to keep the ball out of the back of the net three times in the league so let’s hope we can keep that up.”
Our attention now turns to Brighton on Sunday. Hope Powell's side have had a mixed start to the season but as ever they will be organised and difficult to break down. What is our Head Coach expecting from them?
“I think we’re quite well prepared for that going into the game because we have had to be patient in certain games already so far this season – the Reading game in particular. We probably could have taken some chances earlier but we didn’t, so we had to wait and keep working and make sure we were hard to break down to then create an opportunity to go and get a goal out of the game.
"We have already shown we are capable of managing a game plan in that way and managing the momentum. We have had game changers coming onto the pitch that have created other chances, and I think going into the game we know that we can compete for 90 minutes and make life difficult for people. They definitely will be hard to break down and essentially we will have to be very good at finding spaces that we can utilise and exploit as and when they present themselves, and hopefully create some good quality chances from them, so it’s going to be a really good battle to be honest and I’m looking forward to it.”
