Spurs 5-3 Birmingham City | Martin Ho’s verdict

It was a clinical display in front of goal at Hotspur Way with five different goalscorers – Toko Koga, Cathinka Tandberg, Caitlin Dijkstra, Olivia Holdt and Olga Ahtinen all on the scoresheet – as we earned our second victory in pre-season.

A number of players completed a full 90 minute while the majority of the squad picked up valuable minutes as Martin’s side continued to step up their preparations for the start of the campaign, which gets underway two weeks today – at home to West Ham United (12noon UK).

Despite a positive showing in the opposition's box with five goals, our Head Coach highlighted that certain parts of the performance still need to be 'ironed out' ahead of our season opener at Brisbane Road.

Speaking to us after the match, Martin told us: “We started well in the first 15 minutes and then we looked a little bit disjointed. We didn't win enough duels, we were second to a lot of balls, which isn't good enough for us as a level, and then we gave them too many transitions.

“In the last 15 minutes, we had spells, but the mentality was good because you come back, you push when you go behind, you keep pushing - we had that and we've continued that from last season. There are still small parts to iron out and I'm sure we'll get there by the time we start.”

When asked about the five different goalscorers in the game, he added: “Any time you score five goals, you should be happy. It's different goal scorers and that'll give some of them some confidence individually in terms of in front of goal because we do a lot of work around there.”

“But we must make sure we don't concede the goals we concede because two of them are preventable - one of them is a very good strike, but two of them are preventable. We weren't competitive enough in certain duels, we didn't communicate well enough in some of those areas and at this level, no matter who it's against, you get punished. We just need to iron them out.”

Defender Hanna Wijk also made her return to action for the first time since April, where she suffered a MCL injury while on international duty, and Martin was pleased to see her back out there.

“Really important,” he added. “That was the plan, to get Hanna on the pitch and give her some minutes because she's worked hard and tirelessly through the off-season and pre-season so far to get herself back. I thought she'd done really well, she was aggressive and front footed, clean on the ball, but some small actions that she will tidy up on because she knows.”