Defeat at West Ham in the WSL

Despite creating a number of good openings, we fell to a 2-0 defeat at West Ham United in the Barclays Women's Super League on Sunday afternoon.

Our hosts at the Chigwell Construction Stadium opened the scoring with 16 minutes on the clock as Verena Hanshaw's effort was deflected in off Josefine Rybrink but, having looked bright in the early stages, we then went on to draw a number of saves from Kinga Szemik before we struck the woodwork twice as we looked to get ourselves level.

However, it was not meant to be our day in east London as, in the final minute of the game, the Hammers sealed the victory through Viviane Asseyi's free-kick to leave us without a win in six games in all competitions.

We started on the front foot in Dagenham with Ella Morris at the heart of early opportunities, delivering a number of inviting cross from the right before forcing Szemik into a strong save after Drew Spence’s effort was deflected into the path of the defender. However, despite the positive start for us, it was the hosts who broke the deadlock in fortunate fashion as Asseyi picked out Hanshaw advancing into the box and her low drilled ball across the face of the goal deflected off Rybrink’s shin and into the back of the net.

Unsurprisingly the game swinged into West Ham’s momentum from that point, Riko Ueki being denied by Rybrink and, on the rebound, Asseyi fired narrowly wide before Lize Kop had to show good reflexes to gather Amber Tysiak’s header from close range. We pushed for a leveller in the closing stages of the half, Spence sending a low effort wide of the far post, before we came inches away in injury-time when Eveliina Summanen’s free-kick from the edge of the box crashed against the crossbar.

Vilahamn made a change at the break as Anna Csiki replaced Maite Oroz in midfield but it was the home side who upped the tempo in the opening quarter-of-an-hour of the second period, with Kop called into action two occasions. Shekiera Martinez effort from a tight angle was pushed away by our shot stopper and, from the resulting corner, the ball fell kindly to Katrina Gorry on the edge of the box and her low drilled shot was saved low to her right from the Netherlands international.

We made a further two changes on the hour mark, Matilda Vinberg and Jess both introduced, as we searched for a leveller and came inches away in the 66th-minute when Thomas met Morris’ low cross at the front post but it struck the outside of the post. As the clocked ticked towards the final minutes, we continued to push players forward to find that goal, Hayley Raso firing wide from distance, but, in the final minute of normal time, the hosts wrapped up the victory as Asseyi’s free-kick from the left was low and evaded a number of players inside the box before sneaking in at the back post as they picked up their first victory over us in five meetings.

In terms of team news, Grant returned to the starting XI after missing last weekend’s game with concussion, and Oroz and Rybrink came in from the start in the three changes made by Vilahamn, while Thomas’ start against the Hammers also saw her reach a century of WSL appearances.

Match data

Goals: West Ham – Hanshaw 16, Asseyi 90.

Yellow cards: West Ham – Siren 26; Spurs – Spence 66.

Referee: Stacey Pearson.

Venue: Chigwell Construction Stadium.

Weather: Cloudy, 14 degrees.

Attendance: 1859.