Spurs 2-0 Feyenoord | Robert’s verdict: “It great to see these younger players taking steps”

Robert Vilahamn was pleased to continue our positive run of results in pre-season and to get more minutes in players’ legs in our 2-0 victory over Feyenoord on Wednesday afternoon.

Alongside a number of players completing their first 90 minutes of pre-season, new signings Hayley Raso, Anna Csiki and Katelin Talbert made their first appearances in our colours, giving Robert the opportunity to bed in his squad before our Barclays Women’s Super League season opener at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday 22 September.

We were made to work hard for our fifth win on the bounce, having won twice in behind-closed-doors friendlies in the last week, with our two goals eventually coming in the final quarter of the game.

Elkie Bowyer’s cross was guided home by Lenna Gunning-Williams to net her third goal in the pre-season programme before midfielder Olga Ahtinen, who also scored in our first friendly against London City Lionesses last month, calmly slotted home four minutes from time to secure the win over the Eredivisie Vrouwen side.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Robert said: “Feyenoord made it really hard for us, they pressed well and had some good build-up, so it was a good game. We got a lot of the players getting good minutes, it was nice to see the younger players while others were playing their first minutes for us as well... overall, it was a great win.

“I knew it would be hard at the beginning as we had five new players who have never played with each other, so they had to build relations and learn to play the Spurs’ way. It was always going to be tricky and they made it hard for us, but we scored those goals and had some decent chances after that, it was a decent game and some of players put in really good performance.”

On Lenna Gunning-Williams…

Robert added: “Lenna is always there and trying to score goals, she had a good chance in the first half as well. Elkie has come on and showed how much she has developed in those games with Watford. It great to see these younger players taking steps and getting closer to minutes with the team, I really liked what I’m seeing there.”

On last game of pre-season and start of the WSL…

Robert said: “I’m very excited, it has felt like a long pre-season. I’m looking forward to meeting the fans at Brisbane Road. All the squad have 90 minutes in the legs, everybody has played in and out of those games, so we are now trying to nail down who will start against Crystal Palace. We have one more game to see how we perform and then we will go all in for our first game of the season.”