Every word from Rehanne’s pre-West Ham press conference

Rehanne Skinner sat down for her pre-West Ham United press conference at Hotspur Way on Thursday morning. Here's everything she had to say on the following subjects...

On the response to Reading

Training’s been excellent this week. We were disappointed with the way that we applied ourselves at the weekend, so the response has been good, which is what you need and want in those situations. We were disappointed with the first 20 minutes in particular that we started so slow. We definitely finished in a better position so that’s a positive that we want to build on. We’ve just got to be more consistent across 90 minutes.

We do a lot of really good work with the ball to get it through to the final third with quality. We created a number of chances and some days we take every one of them and on other days we’ve not been able to force it over the line, so it can get a bit frustrating for everyone in those situations when you’re putting all of that hard work together and can’t quite get the rewards from it. It’s challenging and changes the tone of the game, but we’ve had a number of different goalscorers and have a number of different players who can assist. I just think we’ve got to get that consistency in front of goal that enables us to convert those more frequently. I’ve said it before that it’s something we work on and we’ve talked about. We don’t over talk about it because there’s a fine line with that and you’ve got to be careful, but we work on it diligently all the time and it’s just a case for me of transferring from training to games, because it’s certainly not an issue we have in training.

On looking to bounce back against West Ham

It’s a local London derby again, so we always look forward to those sorts of games. We’ve always had a battle with West Ham, so it’s a great rivalry and obviously one that we want to come out on top of at our home ground. The clubs are very close together in terms of where Orient is, so it’s a great chance to get things back on track before going into the Christmas break.

There’s another game thick and fast and we’ve got three games next week, so we can’t dwell on the last one but we do need to make sure that we take the learning from it. We spoke about the game on Tuesday and what came out of that was a really positive discussion around the key things that we want to put in place moving forward from the players’ side of things. It’s really important that players can take ownership in those kinds of moments. They’re supported by the staff and everything we’re trying to achieve here, but ultimately we’re all in it together and it’s a responsibility for us to try to make sure that we do bounce back from the weekend. Knowing the group of players and the way they approach things, they’re not very happy about the weekend and there will certainly be a response this weekend and definitely against a local London club. It’s a tough test and a challenge that everybody always looks forward to.

On how West Ham have done this season

You can’t take West Ham lightly. They’re always competing and aggressive in the way that they play. They’ve got some talented players around set plays that always create problems, so they’ve been a little bit on and off as well, the same as us at certain times, but then have produced good results. It’s probably going to be very similar in terms of where we both are at the moment. For us the challenge is to make sure that we’re at our absolute best from the start of the game to make it as difficult for them as possible. It’s not going to be an easy game.

They’ve had some positive results and not had the results at some times, so we sit in the same boat a little bit with that. I think it’s going to be real test across both teams to make sure we’re at it for 90 minutes. Obviously we want to come out on the right side of that really.

On whether we look at the league table

Naturally you see it. I think anybody would be lying if they said they don’t look at what that looks like at this moment in time. It’s not a defining factor as to what we do. It’s about the next game being the most important thing. If we get the performance right and the results then the points will take care of themselves. You end up where you deserve to at the end of the season and I always believe that. If you don’t put the work in you won’t get where you want and that’s why the next game is always the most important one to make sure that you keep improving. You can win three on the bounce but the next game is still the most important one because you’ve got to maintain momentum. If you lose, you’ve got to bounce back. Whatever comes next, you’ve got to stay in the present and deal with what’s in front of you.

Everybody wants to head into the break in a good space having performed well. Performances are really important and players have got to feel they’ve contributed and delivered a good account of themselves. That’s definitely something we want to get across in the next three games to show that we can be more consistent and to try to get three wins out of three games is the intent.

On how the team is looking for this weekend

We’ve still got training today, but following on from last weekend, we’ve managed to push people a little bit further. Some people have got more minutes which is positive, so we’ll be in a similar position for this weekend.

On Ria Percival’s return to training and Kit Graham update

The best bit of news this week is Ria Percival being back running on the pitch for the first time in eight months, so that’s a massive plus for us yesterday, on her birthday. It was a good day at the office really. That’s been really good progress. We’ve still got Kit Graham moving forwards in the right direction as well, so that’s looking closer to returning to team training. We’re getting nearer to that point now, which is great news.

On how the weather conditions are affecting the training ground pitches

We do get on the grass but we just have to adjust the schedule. We need time to things to thaw out so that we don’t damage the pitch over the course of the season. That part of it is really important, but we’ve learned to flex and change the schedule to be able to suit our ability to get on the grass. The next six or seven days are going to be a bit challenging and it will happen again before the end of the season. If it’s global warming or just a case of the climate a this time of year, we have to be adaptable and structure what our day looks like to make sure we can get on the grass and train properly.

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