Spurs 1-6 London City Lionesses, Women's Super League | Martin Ho's verdict
Martin Ho said the performance was ‘nowhere near the levels we expect as a team’ after a heavy 6-1 defeat to London City Lionesses in the Women’s Super League at Brisbane Road on Sunday.
Our unbeaten start to the 2026/27 campaign ended abruptly at the hands of London City Lionesses as they inflicted our first defeat of the season following a clinical performance in front of goal.
Midfielder Alexia Putellas had a brace by the 34th minute with Kadidiatou Diani scoring in between her goals to give the visitors a three-goal advantage at the break. Danielle van de Donk inflicted more pain seven minutes after the restart to net their fourth and while Victoria Pelova quickly responded with her fifth goal of the season, it was a mere consolation by the end of the game.
Diani grabbed her second of the match on 74 minutes to make it five for London City and in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Delphine Cascarino rounding off the scoring with their sixth.
“We were nowhere near the levels we expect as a team,” Martin told us, speaking to SPURSPLAY after the match. “We know that, the players know that and as a collective, we have to own that.
“But this has to be a wake-up call going into the next block of games after the international break because we need to find those levels again where we're competitive, we are winning first ball, second ball, but then we find that kind of speed of decision-making which weren't there also.
“We were reactive in that moment,” when asked about the early goals from London City. “The concentration levels need to be high against these teams. They have a shot, it's saved, they respond quicker than we did. Putellas then scores and against those types of players, if you don't respond quick enough and when she's in those positions, she scores often.
“They have more physicality than us. That's the honest truth. They have more physicality than us in the duels, 1v1s, central, wide. They have more physicality in those duels to either hold onto the ball or to brush us off it, and we needed to show a more competitive edge in those moments, more intelligence in those moments, and we didn't.”