Spurs Women v Reading – Karen and Juan’s preview

Spurs Women are back on home soil tomorrow (Saturday 7 November) as we host Reading at The Hive in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL), kick-off is 2pm.

Both sides come into tomorrow’s fixture following midweek away defeats in matchday two of the Continental League Cup - Reading lost 3-0 to West Ham in Group D, while we fell to a 2-0 defeat against Cup holders Chelsea in Group B.

In the league, the Royals currently sit sixth with seven points from their opening five fixtures following wins against Aston Villa and West Ham, before they walked away with a point against Manchester City in their last league outing last month.

With one point from five WSL matches, Karen Hills and Juan Amoros’ side are ninth in the table as the search for our first league win of the season continues this weekend.

In our first encounter with the Royals in the league last season, Siri Worm gave us the lead with a cracking effort from the edge of the box into the top corner but Reading came from behind with three goals from Jo Potter, Remi Allen and Arnalie Eikeland late on in the second half to earn a 3-1 victory at Adams Park.

Karen, who returns to the dugout tomorrow having missed the Chelsea away game on Tuesday (3 November) due to self-isolating, said: “I want to thank all of the fans for the well wishes I received while I have been away from the team. It is good to be back ahead of a big game against Reading at the weekend. Reading have a strong squad and Kelly Chambers has done a fantastic job in her recruitment during the summer bringing in some very experienced players. I want to see fight and belief from our players out there and if we are to come away with anything against Reading, we’re going to need to put a shift in and play our best because it’s never easy against them and we know that from previous meetings. On the training pitch, the girls have been very focussed and competitive, and I want us to take that into the game and bounce back from a tough run of results in the league. We’re all sticking together, we’ve come up against some of the strongest teams already in the WSL and we keep learning.”

Juan added: “We’re looking forward to our challenge against Reading, who have one of the most experienced squads in the league. As always, I want to see us dominating and if we can do that then we can get a positive result. During the week against Chelsea, our performance was definitely something to be proud of and I was a bit gutted for the girls as we probably deserved a little bit more. It’s important that we show our quality in the key moments of the game and in both boxes, both defensively and in our attacking play. We’re going to do everything possible to get our first league win of the season and hopefully make our fans proud.”

Fans can follow tomorrow’s action at The Hive on The FA Player.