Spurs Women 1-0 Liverpool Women – Karen and Juan’s verdict

Spurs Women Head Coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros felt proud of the team following a historic first win in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) on Sunday.

It was a delightful home debut with nearly 1,000 fans inside The Hive to see us run out 1-0 winners against Liverpool, thanks to a Rachel Furness penalty.

Our first meeting with the Reds was a competitive encounter, but Karen and Juan’s side dominated for large periods of the game and could have scored more at our new home ground.

“Across the two games, I think we’ve done exceptionally well,” Karen said at full-time. “We put in a performance we can really be proud of in the opening game (against Chelsea) and then to get three points in our second game at home is outstanding and gives the players, staff and hopefully the fans a lot of confidence in the process and hopefully the journey will continue to be positive.

“I think our forward line need to have a little more confidence in themselves. They’re doing it (scoring goals) in training, week in, week out, they just need to trust themselves a little bit more. We all believe in them and we said at half-time to have a go at goal. I think we just need them to initially score their opening goal and then hopefully the floodgates will open.”

Juan added: “I think that our players really dominated the game - both on and off the ball. There’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and the players have showed that they are up for the challenge. We prepare for every game like it’s a final – we did that with Chelsea but unfortunately didn’t win, we did that against Liverpool and this time we came out on top with three points. I think the players can be extremely proud of their performances, not only the 14 players who were involved against Liverpool, but everyone in the squad because it’s a team effort.”

On the team selection, Karen commented: “Every week is going to be a headache for myself and Juan – the girls work hard in training and that’s what we want to see. By Friday we’re in a position where we’re looking at the squad, looking at what our strengths are to try and make sure we have all angles covered, but then unfortunately we have to have some hard conversations with players who aren’t going to be involved. I think we got it spot on with the starting line-up (against Liverpool). The subs we brought on were excellent – Josie (Green) coming back into the middle was a tactical decision and then Rianna Dean getting some minutes under her belt is great to see. We want her to continue doing well this week in training to be in contention to start in our next game.”

We take on Reading in the Continental League Cup (Group D) at The Hive this Sunday (22 September), kick-off at 2pm.

Fans can purchase tickets via The Hive’s ticketing platform.