Rehanne Skinner wants West Ham United women’s team to take confidence from their Subway® Women's League Cup success over Charlton Athletic to put in a committed performance against Chelsea in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Sunday.
At The Valley on Wednesday night, the Hammers found their groove, finishing clinically from close range and producing the spectacular on more than one occasion on their way to a 5-1 victory in south-east London.
Manuela Paví and Leila Wandeler stole the show with long-range strikes, both finding the top-right corner, as Ffion Morgan and Sarah Brasero both netted their first goals for the Club, and Shekiera Martinez got off the mark for the season.
Scoring five goals in a convincing victory is the perfect way to prepare for the visit of the reigning champions, who also won the Adobe Women’s FA Cup and Subway® Women's League Cup in Sonia Bompastor’s first season in charge last term.
But the Hammers proved last season they can go toe-to-toe with Chelsea, having secured a 2-2 draw at Kingsmeadow through a Martinez brace, as we became the only team to take a WSL point at the Blues in 2024/25.
With a fully-fit squad at her disposal, Skinner, speaking to the media in her pre-match press conference on Friday, said her side must utilise last season’s heroics in their favour, and recreate the experience in Sunday’s London derby at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
Skinner also paid tribute to our former manager Matt Beard, who sadly passed away at the weekend.
Showing our full capability
We've shown spells in games, but we've not done a full 90 minutes where we've shown our capabilities, and that's obviously something that we're keen to try and rectify as soon as possible. The performances that we're putting in just haven't been consistent enough for the duration of the game, and that's always going to be tough in this league.
Going into this weekend, our biggest focus is being able to deliver for the duration.
Good performances against Charlton
It (the Subway® Women's League Cup) gives people opportunities. There's only so many places in the squad, there's only so many subs you can make.
It gave us an opportunity to get some of our younger players into the game. We had two debuts this week, several players starting a game for the first time, different goalscorers and first-time goalscorers. All of those things add up to the confidence you need.
For those players that are new to us, it gives us more opportunity to see what they're like under pressure in a game - their decision-making and effectiveness. It’s always about blending people in and trying to get them in at the right time, in the right game for them.
There's a lot of people who did a great job, and that makes it a better opportunity for me to select the side on Sunday.
A fantastic group that wants to learn
We're really honest with our reflections. The team talked about the weekend [against Brighton] and the games where they've felt that it's not been enough, and it's not been for long enough periods of time. Who we normally are has not really been evident for 90 minutes. That in itself gives you an opportunity to react in a positive way.
The team is a fantastic group of people who are trying to learn and want to be better. For the Club, for the fans, we want to make sure we're getting points out of games.
Not forgetting how good we were against Chelsea last season
Players in the game can be so critical of themselves very, very quickly. It's quite easy to focus on something that you've done wrong in a game versus the ten things you've done right. It's our job to highlight that (the things they’ve done well) and to bring it to their attention because it's easy to forget, because they're perfectionists.
We were in a position where we came from two goals behind [against Chelsea last season], regardless of historical situations, and we put ourselves in a game away from home and got a massive, massive point on the road. We didn't do that in too many places last year.
It’s something we have to utilise in our favour. We show the players things that we've done well against these teams because it's important. It's that lived experience that you need to recreate so that they don't forget how good they have been in these moments, and that we're capable of doing it again in the future.
Matt Beard's influence on the game
It's devastating news for the family, for everybody that knows Matt. I remember my first game against him. He was the manager at Chelsea in their first-ever WSL game, and I was at Arsenal at the time.
When I got the sack at Tottenham, we weren't really close, Matt and I, but obviously there's a mutual respect, and he was one of the first people who phoned me.
I think those are the bits that people will always remember about him, the type of character that he was and how influential he'd been in the game.
