Tottenham Hotspur Women made it a perfect weekend of FA Cup action for the club by securing their passage into the fifth round of the FA Cup with a resounding 5-0 victory over Women’s Championship side London City Lionesses at Brisbane Road earlier on Sunday afternoon. Read the match report here, or have your say on the match at the Vital Spurs Fan Forum here.
After the match, Spurs head coach Rehanne Skinner expressed her delight in her side’s comfortable victory, and praised her side for avoiding an upset that she had warned against in the build-up to this fourth-round tie.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY via the club’s official website, Skinner summed up her delight by stating:
“I’m delighted obviously – five goals, clean sheet, ready to go the next round of the FA Cup”, said the Spurs head coach.
“I thought we performed really well over the course of the game, and the performances we’re obviously trying to increase the quality of, week in, week out, so it’s a good result for us today”.
Skinner then reserved some praise for the Lionesses, stating that the visitors were stern opponents despite the flattering nature of the final scoreline from Spurs’ perspective:
“First ten minutes, they [Lionesses] came out flying, and obviously we had to be on our game from a defensive perspective, which I thought we did really well.
“We did the things that mattered in those moments, and made it very difficult for them to get any clean goalscoring opportunities, and then obviously we settled into the game and started to move the ball really well I thought, and playing into the pockets in particular really well when we found the right opportunities and times to do that, it then created some problems for them.”
Speaking about Ashleigh Neville’s return to the side following her suspension due to her red card against Everton before Christmas, Skinner spoke of the importance of getting Neville and other squad members some playing time ahead of the international break:
“We needed to get her back on the pitch today to get her some minutes, which is going to help her for some games that are coming up, and obviously the whole squad that was available to us got precious minutes, ready for the two games coming up before the international break.”
Indeed, Spurs now face two tough ‘home’ matches ahead of the international break in February – first up is Chelsea at Brisbane Road next Sunday, before Skinner’s side host Manchester United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the following Sunday.
Spurs can hopefully carry some momentum from today’s confidence-boosting win into those fixtures, and avoiding defeat in the next two games can potentially transform what is threatening to be a faltering season into one of promise.