Presser Points | Birmingham City vs Spurs, WSL | Martin Ho

Here’s a look at some of the things he had to say...

On Alice Sombath’s ACL injury...

“I’m absolutely devastated, for her as an individual and for any player, those are probably the worst words you hear when you get that news. I think for her as a player, she’s come in and done so well. In the short term, we’ve seen some elements we’ve needed to make her stronger in so we made that conscious decision to build her up slower and we did – she came in really strong, she played against Brighton really well, she played really well in the game against Arsenal at the stadium – and then unfortunately she ends up rupturing her ACL which is disappointing for her. I know she’s absolutely gutted, devastated, but she has the right staff and right players around her to support her and we just need to make sure we give her all the support we can as a club, as fans, players and staff to make sure that we can get her through this period.”

On the return of Jess Naz in midweek...

“Someone like Jess, her mentality and how resilient she’s been in that period, she’s been through it before and she’s had to do it again so she knows what that process looks like, she’s been brilliant and then for her to be able to get on against Bristol City and get some minutes in her legs, there will have been some nerves and some apprehension but the smile on her face when she knew she was coming on and also after the game to get through it was massive. It’s a big positive for us as a team, she’ll be like a new player for us because of how early it happened last season and I have no doubt she’ll make a big impact. When she came into the game for that half-an-hour, I thought she was very good.”

On returning to winning ways...

“You always want to be winning games and when you win games, it builds confidence and belief. It also gives an opportunity to build momentum and it gave me an opportunity to see some players in action that maybe have not had a lot of minutes, have taken time to build up, and for Shekiera (Martinez) to get three goals, Matilda (Nilden) to get her first one and Signe and Olivia to get their goals was really positive. It obviously gives them individually some confidence which is a big thing for me, but also it’s a competition that we want to push in, we want to be progressive in, and we know after a disappointing first game against West Ham, we have to win these games. After the Arsenal game there was the bit between our teeth, wanting to go out and prove a point after the way game was won, so I think we went into the game in a really enthusiastic way and I think the performance showed that.”

On Amanda Nilden’s new deal...

“It’s important. Amanda is a player who has been here for a while before my time, has definitely grown in the last 16 or 17 months massively in terms of performance, quality and stature and probably just the challenge for Amanda is more her management, her leadership, her consistency in performance – I think if we can do that, she can establish herself as a really good player and a mainstay in this team. We want to make sure that she’s challenged, she always develops and she gives herself the chance also to be in that national team for Sweden. I think it’s a statement for us as a club – new signings, yes, but also players wanting and being willing to stay at this football club shows that internally we must be doing something right for players wanting to be here. They see what we’re building here, they see the vision and ambitions of this club and they know the direction we’re going in, and for Amanda to want to stay here is a credit to her and she deserves that, but for us as a club it shows the intent that we have moving forward.”

On Birmingham City...

“They’re in good form, they performed well against Arsenal and also the Charlton game with Charlton being more robust, they had to break them down. We played them in pre-season, they’re a wonderfully talented team, they have a lot of good quality, a really good coach in Amy (Merricks) and the support of Hope (Powell) around her, they have one of the best forwards, if not the best forward in form now in Oceane Hurtre, so we know that we’re going to have to be at our best. They’re going to push us, they have good rotations throughout the middle of the pitch, they have good movement off the backline so we know we’re going to be in a game, at times we’re going to have to suffer without the ball and we’re going to have to show the same defensive mentality that we did against Arsenal, but when we have our moments with the ball I believe we have quality that can hurt them also. We have to go in with the same confidence where we’ve just come off the back of the Bristol City game, the same momentum and confidence that we went into Arsenal with and use that as a springboard for this next group of games.”

On Birmingham striker Oceane Hertra...

“One-v-one, her skillset and her characteristics are very good, she’s very vertical in her play when she gets in a one-v-one in terms of being direct, her finishing qualities in and around the box, not just within the box, are very, very good and we felt that in pre-season with the goal she scored against us. You’ve seen that throughout – the type of quality of finishing she has, how she finishes in and around the box – her speed and athleticism is a really big one and a lot of their attacks when they go through her, they seem to create a lot when she’s got the ball. It’s about making sure that we respect her as an individual, but we also make sure that we get around her when she has the ball, we try and force her into areas she maybe doesn’t want to go and we make it as difficult as we can physically for her to get into that top speed and momentum one-v-one, so we know she’s going to be a threat but also they have other players who are going to be a threat. She’s the breakout player – if people want to say that – but her quality has always been there from when she was in France, I think she’s maybe taken time to adapt to the league and now you’re starting to see her qualities come through.”

On Shekiera Martinez’s hat-trick in midweek...

“Sheki has been brilliant with what she brings in terms of not just on the pitch but off it with her charisma, personality, character, but then on the pitch, her scoring ability and her breaking speed over that first 10 or 15 yards is sharp. She has experience within this league so she’s definitely brought that with her. What’s maybe taken her time to adapt – and Sheki knows that herself – is a bigger expectation at a bigger club, coming to a different playing style where she’s been more in a team where they’ve counter-attacked and when you’re not used to having the ball and now you have the ball a lot more, the demands of how you move within the game, how you connect more in the game and you’ve involved in more phases of the game rather than just one phase on the break, so that adaptation, new players, new expectation, new team, some players take more than others. Sheki puts a lot of pressure on herself too and we’ve tried to remove that, in terms of wanting to score all the time and wanting to be that focal point where we always go through her, and her knowing that she has players around that can support and help her also, I think this is probably where we see Shekiera without any kind of pressure on herself in the game. Now we’re starting to see what she’ll add and I know what she’ll add – goals and precision in front of goal – but sometimes for some players it takes a little bit longer when you come from a different club to a different club.”