West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner is hoping that her side get the points that their performances deserve in their final two Barclays Women’s Super League matches of the calendar year.
The Hammers face Crystal Palace at The Chigwell Construction Stadium this afternoon before travelling to Aston Villa next weekend.
When speaking to the media ahead of this afternoon’s important fixture against Crystal Palace, West Ham United boss Skinner said that the aim is for her side to get the points that they deserve before the Christmas break.
“We’ve been playing well and that’s then put us into a position where we have to be confident with what we’re doing going into this weekend,” Skinner said. “We want to get three points, that’s where we sit with it.
“There’s a long way to go but we’ve got our own standards and targets that we want to meet. We want to make sure that we get as many points out of games as possible.
“In some situations, we’ve played so well and not quite got what we feel we’ve deserved at times. We want to make sure that we finish these last two WSL games before Christmas in a more positive position based on what we’ve been doing on the pitch.”
Opponents Crystal Palace are bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table but Skinner believes that The Eagles will be tough opponents in East London.
She said “It’s difficult coming into the league, it’s a hard place to be. I think everyone in the club has done a really good job, they’ve recruited well and have some experience in the team which is important, so we don’t expect an easy game.
“I’ve worked with Laura [Kaminski] before; when I was at Tottenham, she was the academy coach there, so she’s been around the game a long time and has gained experience that will help her.
“It’s a tough league but they’re doing well and we want to make sure that we make life difficult for them this weekend as always. It’ll be a good test, it’ll be a really good game.”
After clocking up the miles on their travels in the early weeks of the season, West Ham United now have four out of five games at home. Skinner hailed the work that the club have done behind-the-scenes to make The Chigwell Construction Stadium feel like home.
She said “It’s fantastic to be back at home in-front of our fans. I’ve seen a significant shift at home since January. The club’s work in improving our fanbase has been exceptional and it’s made the ground a lot harder place to come to.
“For us, it takes time to make it feel like home. We want to make ourselves incredibly hard to beat at home and we proved that last year when we beat Arsenal which was a massive result for us. This year, we’ve got the win against Leicester and played really well in other games there.
“The first five games [of the season] were really tough. Nobody talks about how hard it is to go on the road. Everybody has to do it but we are like top and bottom of the country, it’s a big shift to go to the North West three times in four games. We played well in those games, more-so than last year. With all of our performances, we have shown significant improvements game-on-game and that’s what matters.”
West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Crystal Palace kicks-off at 2.30pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
About The Author
Daniel Pentland
I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018.
I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.