Manager Rehanne Skinner hailed the togetherness of her West Ham United women’s team following our 2-1 success over Brighton & Hove Albion in the Subway® Women's League Cup on Wednesday night.
When Shekiera Martinez swept the ball home in the 75th minute to give us the lead at Chigwell Construction Stadium, those in the home dugout all jumped out in celebration, cheering on those in Claret and Blue who all went to congratulate our No19.
The winning goal helped us turn the contest around after Seraina Piubel cancelled out Carla Camacho’s 16th-minute opener, ensuring we have a three-point lead at the top of the Group C standings.
Our manager was quick to praise the two goalscorers, as well as the key decisions her side made in the game to help us on our way to a first victory at home this season.
The spirit, determination and hunger in the team has never been doubted, and Skinner wants the Irons to take the confidence from the victory against the Seagulls into our clash in the Barclays Women’s Super League against London City Lionesses on Sunday.
I think the players worked incredibly hard in and out of possession.
I thought we did a really good job today. It was a great opportunity for the whole squad as well to be able to get minutes and obviously against a WSL team. It was an opportunity for us to get a little bit of payback from the way that we played [against them] in the league. You can see how we've grown from that game to this one. I'm delighted with the players and the win.
I think both Seraina and Shekiera both did really well.
I think both of them (Piubel and Martinez) have been really close in other situations and have had chances in other games. But I think one of the big things we've wanted is to create more chances, and they were both really quick to take them. If you think about the way that they scored, they were really sharp in and around the box amongst a bit of chaos.
It just shows how willing they are and how desired they are in these opportunities to get goals.
When we were under the pump at key times, we made some great decisions and that's been the difference because of those last-ditch opportunities.
Equally, we've scored two goals when we've had the chances, and that matters as well. I think sometimes we talk about when we've conceded goals, but not the missed chances. But today we took those chances better. We were much more effective in and around the final third. And to be honest, we probably should have had a couple more. So it was really, really good overall from the team.
That (the celebration after Martinez’s goal) tells you how together the team are and how delighted they are for each other.
I think one of the best things about this team is, regardless of where we've been, the team has been fighting really hard and working incredibly hard to improve every single day of the week. You've seen that in spells within our performances, but today as a collective, the performance was much, much better.
And when you see those types of celebrations, the whole bench was out. I think that sums up the togetherness and how tight the team are, which is great to see.
And it's the perfect way to head into the game at the weekend, which will be our final one for a few weeks.
I think this is a good opportunity for us to take this bit of confidence into the weekend. We're just at that point where we've just got to make sure that becomes consistent within the games and we'll get three points out of games.
