Skinner: Everyone's in a really good space
Manager Rehanne Skinner labelled the Hammers’ friendly with Arsenal as a ‘needed’ test, whilst hailing her side’s defensive determination at Mangata Developments Stadium Meadow Park.
Her side went toe-to-toe with the Gunners, but were defeated by a brace from substitute Frida Manaaum late on into the friendly.
In the second half, Skinner sent on new signing Leila Wandeler, who displayed her creativity and flair in southern Hertfordshire, which also impressed the Irons boss.
Skinner insisted how excited her side are for the start of the Barclays Women’s Super League season, which commences against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday 7 September.
It was a test that we needed.
This is our sixth pre-season game and I think we've been progressing really positively as a team overall. We've had some really positive outcomes, performances and today was obviously going to be another step up against the Champions League winners. That's what we want at this stage to help us to prepare for the start of the season.
There's little bits to look at with the goals, but right here, right now, the number of players that have played over pre-season, the minutes that they’ve had, the preparation, everyone's in a really, really good space.
The dedication from the defence was really positive.
The attitude, effort and dedication of the team in and around the box was outstanding last year and that’s carried over into this year. We put bodies on the line, people were putting blocks in, we were quick to get out and put people under pressure to limit shooting opportunities. That's been really positive.
We've not been able to keep a clean sheet today, but that's not changing the tone and intent of how hard we're trying to keep those clean sheets and bring the [amount of] goals conceded down.
Leila showed her fearlessness.
Leila's a creative, young, very talented player, and she's fearless. That's something you saw at the Euros with Switzerland - every time she came on the pitch she affected the game really, really well.
She's a really good young player and we want to make sure that we keep getting those little spells out of what she's done today. Taking on three players at once against Arsenal is bold. Fans are going to love to see that, and it's only going to grow with her confidence within the team and how we play as we move forward.
Everybody’s looking forward to the game against Tottenham.
Gametime is just huge in pre-season because it gives you all those opportunities to develop those relationships, to problem solve on the pitch. So this last week is going to help us to finish off those little bits.
I think when we come round to the game against Tottenham, which is obviously huge, it's a London derby, so that's massive for us. Everybody's already looking forward to that. I obviously keep reining them back into the next pre-season game that's in front of us!
We want to make sure that we keep chipping away at the things that are going to make us more ready for that first game of the season.