West Ham United women’s team’s clinical performance against Southampton in the Subway® Women's League Cup delighted manager Rehanne Skinner, who watched her side score five at Chigwell Construction Stadium on Wednesday night.
Following a goalless first half, in which the Hammers ground down their opponents, they came out in the second half and put the Saints to the sword.
Viviane Asseyi opened the scoring with a smart header from a pinpoint Verena Hanshaw corner before Shekiera Martinez notched our second, ruthlessly firing the ball into the top-right corner with venom.
Ffion Morgan put us three ahead with a smart finish with six minutes of the 90 remaining and there was time for Asseyi and Martinez to both get their second goals of the game in second-half stoppage time. Our No20 made it four via a stunning long-range strike, while Martinez’s smart movement allowed her to fire home Morgan’s low cross at the near post.
Speaking after full-time, Skinner lauded her side’s confidence in front of goal, while also hailing the performance of young Selin Cemal, who showed confidence of someone way above her years in what was only her second appearance for the Club.
I'm delighted with the performance tonight.
I think it's definitely one that we've been waiting for, just the way that we were so clinical in front of goal. I think the quality of every goal was just so high as well at key moments. I think in the first half, we did a lot of hard work to manage the game, to get ourselves in front in terms of the performance. And then the goals in the second half were outstanding.
The group that started the game did a really good job of grinding Southampton down. And then the players that came on and had an impact, and that created some unbelievable chances, and we've taken them.
The techniques in some of those goals that we scored are absolutely phenomenal.
We've worked a lot on the timing of taking those chances and not overthinking in those moments. Sometimes we've maybe had an extra touch when we haven't needed it of late. But actually today, straight away, we were in really good positions, really controlled with the finishing.
I think it's going to be difficult to pick out the best one of those, to be honest!
Selin [Cemal] was fantastic today.
[As well as with the ball], out of possession, she was absolutely superb. She knew what her job was really clearly, and I thought she executed it brilliantly. She's trained solidly with the first team since we brought her in. Bit by bit, when she gets those opportunities, she's going to be a huge player for the future. I was really proud of her performance tonight, and she's progressed massively in such a short space of time as well.
We're delighted with the way that we've performed in the League Cup.
The result against Brighton was obviously a big one for us as well in this competition. This has all-but cemented a position in the quarter-finals for us based on the other results as well. It’s really positive progress for everybody.
I think we probably needed that as well, to be honest, just for confidence. So hopefully that helps us go into the weekend even more positive than we were already.
