Jenna Schillaci: "We know we have to do better"

Spurs Women captain Jenna Schillaci admitted that our performance was “nowhere near where it should be” in Sunday’s 4-0 defeat to Reading in the Continental League Cup, Group D.

Despite having some great early chances to take the lead, we found ourselves trailing the Royals 1-0 in the first half, before three more goals followed for the visitors in a matter of eight minutes following the interval.

Jenna was one of three changes made to the side who were victorious against Liverpool in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) and our skipper couldn’t help but express her disappointment to lose in a game where we were punished for not taking our chances.

“It was obviously a disappointing result for us, we knew it was going to be a tough challenge against Reading, who are a well-established team in the league with many threats,” Jenna said following our first defeat at The Hive.

“I think in the first half we played quite well and created lots of chances, but we just didn’t take them, we just weren’t clinical enough in front of goal.

“Straight into the second half, a mistake from us didn’t help and then an own goal followed that, which killed the game. It’s disappointing and we’ll obviously reflect on the performance - the standards today were nowhere near where they should be.”

Our next challenge is an away trip to West Ham at the London Stadium this Sunday (29 September) and Jenna is hopeful that the team will return to our “high standards” against the Hammers in the WSL clash.

“I think we’re all quite self-critical so we’ll definitely all go away and all look at the performance and make sure we learn from our mistakes,” Jenna continued.

“There were positives in the first half, had we taken one of our chances, it could have been a different game. We know we have to do better, especially with the great quality we have in this team so it’s important for us to get back to our high standards, ready for our next game.”

Season Ticket Holders and One Hotspur Members can secure tickets for our match against West Ham this Sunday online - kick-off is 2.30pm at the London Stadium.