Rehanne Skinner told reporters her side were “competitive” in their opening Barclays Women’s Super League fixture today. The Hammers fell to a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford.
Manchester United dominated from the start and first-half goals from Geyse and Leah Galton gave them a comfortable lead before Grace Clinton added a third. Rehanne Skinner’s team looked short on ideas and none of her changes, though some showed promise, could find them a way into the game.
It was an inauspicious start to a campaign where they will hope to avoid another relegation battle, having finished 11th last season.
What did Rehanne Skinner say?
Embed from Getty Images“I don’t think it’s worrying – I think if you actually look at the game itself you can see how competitive we were throughout the course of the game.
“We’ve had three fantastic chances really that we’ve not capitalised on and that’s kind of what you get in the league in terms of the outcome.”
Geyse’s opening goal was controversial for her opponents as her opponent Camila Sáez went to ground when the Brazilian dispossessed her. Skinner was unhappy with that decision, but said she had not spoken to officials about it.
Reflecting on the performance, she said: “Structurally we caused them problems, I want us to be a little bit better in how we move and operate in the build because I think we could have found some more solutions to play out a little bit more comfortably. Other than that I think there’s a lot of positives to take from the performances of the team.
“When everybody’s available for the whole duration of games that then puts us with more depth in the squad.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThere were debuts for new signings including Kinga Szemik, Manuela Paví, Camila Sáez, and Li Mengwen. Though none could make the difference today for West Ham, Skinner said with time she believes a fully fit squad will help turn results around.
“Once we get everybody in the same position with that (match fitness) I think you can see what they’re capable of, they’ll massively add value to the squad and make the squad even more competitive.”
The manager told reporters that the club need to get players “settled in”, referring to the number of new signings but also players such as Katrina Gorry, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, and Kristie Mewis coming back from long injury-enforced absences.
Asked what success looks like for West Ham this season, having been threatened with relegation last year, Skinner said: “Last year was about getting some things in place that help the players to perform at the highest level and we needed to adjust that, and this year is about ensuring that we build on what we did last year to be able to have more successful performances. We need to be finishing higher than where we did last year.”
The visiting manager was also asked about the attendance at Old Trafford today, which sat at around 12,000 – a disappointingly low figure to some. Skinner’s view was that it was still positive to have played the game at the iconic venue rather than at Leigh Sports Village.
Embed from Getty Images“I just think players want to play in these types of stadiums, this is what we need to be striving towards across the game. For me, for the players, we wanted to play here.
“It’s still 12,000 people which not everybody’s getting at their games.
“All clubs can do more to grow the fanbase to grow the people in the stadiums but I still think it’s more than what most games are doing every week.”
West Ham have their first home fixture of the season next weekend when they face Liverpool on Sunday 29th September.
Read what victorious manager Marc Skinner had to say about today’s encounter here.
