Rehanne on Blues win: “It wasn’t pretty, but we’re delighted with three points”
Mon 14 February 2022, 18:15|
Tottenham Hotspur
Rehanne Skinner talked us through the tactical tweaks that saw Spurs Women home against Birmingham City in the Women’s Super League on Sunday.
Facing the tough, physical test expected from a team scrapping for their lives, the team struggled to break down a resolute Blues side in a goalless first half at St Andrew’s.
That all changed after the break as we took control. Rehanne introduced Eveliina Summanen and Kerys Harrop at the break and the power down both flanks provided by Kerys and goalscorer Ashleigh Neville, aligned to the control and tireless running of Ria Percival and Maeva Clemaron in midfield, Jess Naz’s ability to break from deep and Eveliina supporting Rachel Williams up front all added up to a 2-0 victory, with Neville making the breakthrough on 66 minutes and Ria adding the second five minutes from time.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, there were times it was a little physical but that’s to be expected,” reflected Rehanne at St Andrew’s. “As the game evolved, we started to get control of possession, created some good chances and took them well when they came around.
“In the first half, we weren’t recognising that the central areas were too compact to play through and we could use the wider areas a lot more. We changed shape in the second half to be able to exploit that a little more with attacking full-backs.
“Kerys is a natural left-footed player and that then created a slightly different crossing dimension from that side as well. A soon as we started exploiting space between the defenders and midfield unit of Birmingham, we started to find pockets of space, our timing and movement got better, we attacked crosses and we won more set plays, which created goalscoring opportunities as well.
“We worked incredibly hard, also, a clean sheet away from home… we’re delighted with the three points.”
Back-to-back wins (and two clean sheets) in a week over Brighton and Birmingham, plus Manchester United drawing against Arsenal and losing to City, means Spurs have leapfrogged back over United into third in the WSL. The team now has a break for internationals with the next WSL game at Reading on 6 March (2pm).
“For us, it’s about making sure we continue doing what we’re doing,” added Rehanne. “Now we’ve a bit of break, internationals will go away and do a good job for their countries and we’ve a group to work with here. We’ll get everyone back on track for the next league game. It’s a great place to be going into this international break.”
