Rehanne Skinner says that West Ham United women’s team have the opportunity to bounce back when they face current Barclays Women’s Super League holders Chelsea in their upcoming fixture.
The Irons fell to a disappointing defeat against Liverpool last weekend, though will be confident of causing another upset, having taken the Blues to extra-time in their last meeting in the Adobe Women's FA Cup before being narrowly edged out.
Skinner admits her side are in for a tough game against Emma Hayes’ Chelsea, but insists they will be up for the occasion in front of over 3,000 supporters, and will look to continue their strong home after impressive results against Arsenal and Manchester United in their last two outings at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
The manager was speaking to media in her pre-match press conference on Thursday, where she also spoke about the importance of the Club’s supporters, Jess Ziu, and gave an update on team news ahead of the contest.
You can listen to the full pre-match press conference by clicking play on the audio player above, or read on for the key talking points…
It's an opportunity to bounce back
I think there have been a couple of games where we have shown we can turn up and have performed very well in those couple of games. We are looking forward to getting back in front of our fans this weekend. When we played Chelsea last time in the [Adobe] FA Cup, we gave a really good account of ourselves in that game, and I think the players are really up for it.
It’s an opportunity to bounce back from this weekend as there were a few things that we were a bit disappointed with, so it’s another game, another opportunity and we are going to give it everything we absolutely can.
The group love these type of games and I think we have risen to the challenge of making it a really tough game when we have played a team in the top four.
Their [Chelsea’s] squad is in the position it is because of the depth of that squad, so every player on that pitch we have to be mindful of, and want to make sure we stick to what we are trying to do within our game plan. Hopefully we can make it as hard as possible, fight for everything, and make it as difficult as we possibly can.
The squad is built to manage multiple game weeks, so I would never underestimate them and we’ve got a lot of respect for Chelsea, but at the same time we don’t fear them and have got to go out and do what we want to do within our game.
We will be competitive, work really hard no matter their starting XI, and make sure we do everything we can to deliver our game plan and hopefully that gives us an opportunity to get some points out the game.
Jess Ziu's a fantastic talent
She’s a fantastic talent and we’ve been really patient with the turnaround coming back from injury and the period of time she was out. I feel that’s really important because I don’t think you should put pressure on the return to play period and, before Christmas she was starting to come back towards the squad and getting a little bit of time.
Over Christmas she worked a little bit harder, came back in and was closer to being in the position mentally, as well as physically, to be really competitive. What that’s culminated in is the success of the way she works and the way she operates, and the time we have given her to move forward and go be in the position with her national team and be more successful.
I think she is going to go from strength to strength and is a young player with a lot of different attributes and, with the confidence she gains within what we are trying to do and the way she can play, the better she will become.
The fans are important
There’s a lot of people behind the scenes that have helped create that feel at Dagenham and it’s not a stadium that the team have been in long. It’s taken time for the players to feel at home and for the fans to recognise that as the place to be for our games.
They [the fans] play a massive part and the atmosphere they’ve been able to create being so close to the pitch has been superb and it’s getting better and better every time. They will make us be more successful, not just for this game, but as time goes on as well.
We’ve sold over 3,000 tickets again this weekend, which shows the fan base is growing and they are such an important part of what we are trying to achieve this year as well.
We want to be able to go and lift the crowd and give them things back for the support they are giving us. They’ve helped create a home atmosphere and have made it a difficult place to come actually.
Team news
Kristie Mewis won’t be available this weekend. When she came to us, she had recovered well from a tendon issue, but it’s had a bit setback and, whilst she got some minutes when she first came to the Club, it’s been a little bit of a challenge as of late.
