Neville: “It just wasn’t good enough… a difficult one to take”
Mon 17 February 2025, 16:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Ashleigh Neville reflected on a disappointing display as Arsenal claimed victory in the north London derby on Sunday.
Despite an even opening quarter-of-an-hour at the Emirates, we found ourselves two goals behind at the break after Alessia Russo’s header went in off Clare Hunt before Mariona Caldentey added a second in the closing stages, before goals from Frida Maanum, Russo and Emily Fox in the second period wrapped up a comprehensive win for the home side.
The experienced defender was understandably hit hard by our defeat in the derby and acknowledged the performance ‘wasn’t good enough’ from their own standards.
We will come back after the international break, when all the girls are back, and look at that, but it just wasn’t good enough from us.
“It’s a difficult one to take,” ‘Ash’ told us, speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game. “We knew it would be a tough game but to concede five goals, we know that’s not good enough. We will come back after the international break, when all the girls are back, and look at that, but it just wasn’t good enough from us.
“It wasn’t an early goal but we had a conversation that if we conceded, we are still in the game, 1-0 isn’t the end of the world, but then we conceded a second and we just couldn’t find the momentum from then on. They are a great team, we can’t take that away from them, but we just weren’t great.”
While the result wasn’t what we hoped, it was a special afternoon for the defender as she became the first ever Spurs player to make 100 appearances for the Club in the WSL.
“It’s a proud moment and especially being the first Spurs player to do that, I’m really proud of that,” she added, reflecting on the achievement of hitting her 100th WSL game. “It’s not the result we wanted, but we go again for the next game.”
Next up, after the international break, is the visit of Manchester City to Brisbane Road on Sunday 2 March (2pm KO).
“We have Manchester City after the international break, so the girls will go away with their countries, some of the girls will stay here and work, and we will come together for another tough game against City but we’ll be ready for it.”
