Rehanne Skinner Previews Coventry United

Following last weekend’s comprehensive defeat to Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur Women are looking to return to winning ways in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup against Championship Strugglers Coventry United, who Spurs only just overcame in December last year courtesy of an 88th-minute winner from to reach the quarter-finals of last season’s edition of the tournament.

You can read the preview for tomorrow’s match at Brisbane Road (kick-off at 2 PM BST) here.

Previewing the match in her pre-match press conference via the club’s official website, head coach Rehanne Skinner referenced last season’s hard-earned victory over the Midlanders as a warning to the players should the temptation to take their opponents lightly rear its ugly head:

“I remember we scored late on in the game…obviously we played on a 3G surface, which was a bit of a challenge for us to adjust to on the day, but they’re a fighting team who worked really hard and kept themselves in it.

“Ultimately, we want to make sure that we look after the game this weekend. We want to keep progressing in the Conti Cup. We had a fantastic run in it last year and want to try to keep building on that, so for us it’s about continuing our own momentum, taking the in-possession stuff that we evolved last week with a little bit more quality in front of goal to this game and make sure we cut out those mistakes and make life really difficult for Coventry.”

Indeed, our opponents tomorrow find themselves without a league win in the Championship this season, having lost nine out of nine under Lee Burch’s stewardship, making Spurs the clear favourites for this match.

This bodes well for the hosts, given that in matches against sides below or around them, Spurs have generally fared well this season, having beaten Leicester, Liverpool and Brighton in the league and Reading in the Conti Cup. Rather, it is against superior opposition that Skinner’s side has struggled, rolling over to Arsenal, Manchester City, and most recently, Chelsea last weekend.

Speaking about this ostensible gap in quality between Spurs and the sides above them, Skinner highlighted the positives from Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea, while citing the need for Spurs to build on the “fine margins” in which they have fallen short against higher-calibre opposition:

“There were definitely some spells in possession where I thought we played some fantastic football and progressed the ball from back to front really well,” she said. “I think we were lacking in the final third in terms of what we then created from that positive play.

“We’ve all looked at it as a collective and said that we didn’t capitalise on the way that we build and progress the ball as well as we should have. We took a couple of decisions in terms of shots from outside the box, when actually there were options to get into the box.

“In those moments, those are the fine margins that make the difference and get you clear-cut chances. The mistakes that we made cost us and that was the difference on the day. We have to be more clinical. They were able to do that and it’s something that we’re trying to evolve into. We know that we’ve got to keep learning and building on what it is that we’ve done.”

Skinner continued by citing several mitigating circumstances that have prevented Spurs from sustaining a consistent run of form so far this season:

“For the collective, trying to get some consistency in games is really important for all of us with the amount of disruptions we’ve had to our play, with international breaks and with the game being cancelled due to the pitch against Everton. It put a big gap between us playing a game and then playing Chelsea.

“For us now leading up to Christmas, it definitely gives us an opportunity to try to keep some rhythm and that’s something that we’re keen to do.”

Spurs can indeed have a consistent run of ‘winnable’ fixtures (if you believe in such notions) to look forward to prior to the Christmas break, travelling to Reading on December 4th, hosting West Ham a week later on December 11th, before wrapping up 2022 with a trip to Southampton in the Conti Cup on December 18th.

Skinner sees tomorrow’s match as the potential start of a new period of consistency, hoping that her side can build up ahead of steam before domestic action ceases for a few weeks:

“It’s great to have a few more home games. We missed one so we’re trying to get that one back in at some stage, but now, a couple of games going into Christmas enable us to get the fans back at our place.

“Every time they come, it makes the atmosphere so much better, so it’s great to be in our own space and to have our fans supporting us throughout the whole game, so we’re looking forward to the crowd and everyone cheering for Spurs and getting back on track with that. It will be a real good experience for us moving up to Christmas.”