Josie Green focussing on the positives ahead of tough run

Captain Josie Green says Spurs Women remain full of belief, despite a rough start to the season with one point from two league matches and last weekend’s defeat to Arsenal in the 2019/20 Women’s FA Cup quarter-final.

For Karen Hills and Juan Amoros’ side, there’s a chock-a-block schedule coming up with three games in seven days – starting with an away trip to Manchester City this Sunday (4 October).

Back in Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) action this weekend, we take on last season’s runners-up in the competition, searching for our first win in the new campaign at the Academy Stadium - kick-off is 12.30pm and the game will be shown live on BBC Red Button.

“It’s no secret, it’s been a tough start for us and if you look at the West Ham game, we should have got more, and Everton, again was a very tight game,” Josie commented. "If you look at the league now there are no easy games. In the Continental League Cup, we’re in a tough group as well. These challenges are just going to make us better at the end of the day. I think it is just a matter of time before we, as a group, can take that next step, and start hurting the bigger teams. It is a tough run of games, we know that, but as a team, we’re going to step it up. It’s really tight margins in this league and if you want to get all three points you have to really work for that 90 minutes - I think that’s going to be really important for us against City on Sunday. Hopefully, we’ve learnt from previous games and we can push on.”

Reflecting on our Cup defeat in the north London derby last Saturday (26 September), Josie, who returned from international duty with Wales last week and replaced Chloe Peplow in the second half at Meadow Park, says there are plenty of positives to take away from our performance against the Gunners.

"Obviously, we’re disappointed about the result, but we’re using it as a learning curve going forward,” Josie said. "You could see that everyone was sticking to the game plan, especially in the first half, and it was really working for us. It just needs to be for the whole 90 minutes. There are definitely things we can take from the game, the girls worked so hard for each other, but we just need to be consistent with that.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s first-ever meeting with City at the Academy Stadium, our skipper commented: "They’re a great side, there’s no doubt about it, but on the flip-side for us, we’re building a really exciting team. Every game we’re getting better and we fully believe in ourselves and know that we can compete. Yes, it is going to be a tough game, but if we focus on ourselves and manage to do what we want to do for the entire 90 minutes, I feel like we have the potential to do well against them.”

On the new arrivals at both clubs this summer, Josie said: "We’ve both added quality, world-class players to our squads, so it just makes it more exciting. Our new arrivals are settling in really well, from talking to them and them being around the girls, I think we all get on great. They have loads of experience and they’re just really great people too, so it’s been really nice for them to join us and they all bring so many different qualities to the team too.

“I think the first few games were tough and we didn’t have long together to gel as a group, but it’s really positive how we’re coming together. We are now understanding each other, it obviously takes time to work out who you’re playing with too. There’s a long season ahead of us and we’ve got a great group of girls here, and I’m sure if we stick together, we can get the results."