Despite being left frustrated not to take something from Sunday’s north London derby at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Josie Green was proud of her team-mates’ efforts in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Over 38,000 fans were inside the bowl in N17 to watch Spurs Women’s first ever outing at our world class arena but the historic day ended with a disappointing result as the Gunners took all three points in the Barclay’s FA Women’s Super League (WSL) clash.
With Club captain Jenna Schillaci named on the bench, vice-captain Josie led the squad out for the encounter, where our Women’s side showed their quality as they matched last season’s WSL champions throughout the game. Kit Graham and Rianna Dean had good opportunities to give us the lead in the first half as we dominated large parts of the game but ultimately, we were punished for not taking our chances.
Second-half strikes from Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema sealed maximum points for our rivals, but Josie felt our performance deserved so much more.
“The result was massively tough to take,” the midfielder explained. “I think we executed our game plan well, the girls worked so hard for each other, we believed that we could have got something from the game and we had the chances to do so.
“We’re gutted the game ended with that result, but it shows how far we have come as a team in such a short period of time. I’m just really proud of the girls in showing what we could do.
“I think the chances we had in the first half just gave us confidence going into the break knowing the game was there for the taking - we had some good opportunities in that first period and we were in there at 0-0. I think the thoughts of the team at the break were ‘we’ve got this, let’s go out and give it another half, just like we have done’ but unfortunately, it just didn’t go our way.
“I think on another day, Kit (Graham) slots in that first chance and I would back her to do that any other day – you see her in training and she’s absolutely fantastic. She’s one of the best strikers we have in the squad so I’m gutted for her but it just shows, with us getting those chances, we are not far off. We just have to keep pushing.”
And the hard work continues for the girls this week with two tough away trips ahead - a visit to Chelsea on Wednesday evening in the Continental League Cup before a return to WSL action on the road at Everton on Sunday.
Having performed so well against Arsenal, Josie is confident that the players can continue to push on this season and earn positive results this week.
“I think we’ve given a good account of ourselves against Arsenal. Obviously it didn’t go our way but we’re not just here in this league to make up numbers,” she explained.
“Coming into the new season, we made a lot of new signings, we’ve had a short time to gel together and I think we’ve really shown that we’re here to stay in the league and compete. We just need to keep that up. We’re ready to push on and do even more.”