Rehanne’s five-point preview – Brighton & Hove Albion

Spurs Women Head Coach Rehanne Skinner turns her attention to Sunday’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion at the People’s Pension Stadium (2pm UK).

1 - Positives to take

We played last Sunday in our first game after the international break, the result didn’t go our way, but now we’ve had time to reflect, what did Rehanne think the main positives were and how has the team responded?

“I think we played well in the context of what we set out to achieve within the game. We have been working on being more threatening and ruthless in front of goal and obviously getting the two goals out of the game from open play was a real positive for us.

"The other opportunities that we created were good, quality clear-cut chances so that’s definitely something that we are working towards and we need to continue to work down that route. We didn’t get broken down within open play, defensively we were really tight.

“We had a debut for a young player (Esther Morgan) who worked fantastically hard throughout the whole game. It was a fantastic experience for her against a club like Everton. Overall, there were lots of parts to the game that we should be taking positives out of. The result - and I said it at the weekend - we could have and should have got points from the game. 

“The response has been really positive because the players believe in what we are trying to do here. In every session, they are trying to prove that this is what we are about, and this is who Spurs are going to be going forward. The commitment in training and to the plan is just getting better every day. They are a hard-working bunch, and they are a great pleasure to work with. The players are desperate to be on the pitch, I am having to cut training sessions shorter to get them off the pitch at the moment because they want more which is brilliant.

“It shows the drive and motivation from them that they are really enjoying their football. I love the energy on the pitch and there are some real characters out there who pull all of that together which you need in any team. I think that really helps to gel the team together.”

2 - Team news

We saw Jess go off injured during the match at the weekend, what could Rehanne share with us about her and an update on the other injured players?

“Unfortunately, Jess went into a tackle and had her hand stood on which swelled up quite badly. It is something to keep an eye on, but it won’t be a long-term issue for her which is great news.

“It is too soon for those players who have been out for a longer period of time like Hannah Godfrey, Becky Spencer, Rachel Williams and Ashleigh Neville. They are making really good progress and have jumped forward quite significantly but we just need to give them the time to get fully back on track before they are involved with the matchday squad.”

3 - Chloe Peplow

It was fantastic to see Chloe Peplow in the squad and come off the bench on Sunday after a long time out. How good is it to have her back involved?

“Chloe’s a really hard-working player who puts herself on the line for everything. It is great to have her back in training full-time and on the pitch. Her confidence is growing, and she is getting closer and closer to being in a position to be even more effective and gain more minutes in upcoming games.”

4 - Brighton

Brighton Head Coach Hope Powell and Rehanne know each other from their time together at England. What did Rehanne think of the job she is doing and what kind of challenge did she expect from Brighton?

“Brighton are a building project that has been clearly outlined and I think that Hope is a fantastic person to be doing that. They are organised, a threat in terms of counter-attacking ability, and they have got some good results recently so they will no doubt come into the game with us in a positive mindset.

“Every game is a difficult game, and we have to step up and prove that we are capable of getting results from those games. We have to focus on us and put into practice what we have worked on.”

5 - How far we’ve come

Talk to us about your journey so far. It only seems like five minutes ago that we played Brighton in your first game in charge, where do you think we are at this point and how far do you think we’ve come since that game?

“We have taken some brilliant steps forward. It is a building process here at Spurs, I have come in in the middle of a season and there is always some ups and downs associated with that. The response from the players has been excellent and we are building a culture here that everyone is buying into which is really important and that doesn’t happen overnight. It is the on and off the pitch little aspects that hopefully the fans are seeing as well within our performances that are showing what we are capable of.

“We have to keep being more consistent in terms of quality. Certainly, in terms of goals, we have to keep being more of a goal threat and making sure that we keep clean sheets at the other end. We have got goals out of the games that we have had but we need to be more consistent in both boxes. It is a work in progress.

"We have had a number of cancellations and if we had had all of our games then we may be a little further forward with that but we have some good games coming up and we want to prove our worth and show who we are as a WSL team.”

Rehanne on Spurs TV