Rehanne on FA Cup loss: "We've got to learn from this"

Rehanne Skinner says Spurs Women are determined to halt a trend that has cost them dearly in recent matches - conceding late goals from winning positions.

Injury time goals cost the team victories - and four points - in draws against Arsenal and West Ham in the Women’s Super League and, on Sunday, Leicester City’s equaliser in the 81st minute ultimately changed the course of their FA Cup, fourth round tie, with the visitors eventually turning the game around completely and going through 3-1 after extra time.

We dominated at the Hive and finally took the lead we deserved when Angela Addison converted Jess Naz’s cross on the hour. However, a defensive slip allowed Shannon O’Brien to fire home the equaliser and having survived a late onslaught at the end of normal time, the Foxes grabbed the lead in the first minute of extra time before securing victory in the final seconds as we pushed for an equaliser.

“That’s the FA Cup,” reflected Rehanne at the Hive. “Leicester are very well organised in terms of defence, so you have to work hard to break them down. We did that with our goal, a fantastic goal. We had other opportunities as well.

“Unfortunately, we’ve switched off and given them a goal that has then put them level, then you’re under a little more pressure. They then know how to see games out. They did really well with that.

“Look, the positives are that we dominated possession and big chunks of the game, but, bottom line, you’ve then got to make sure you can maintain the lead and we haven’t done that.

“We’ve really got to learn from this. It’s happened twice now where we’ve conceded when we’ve been ahead, and that’s not something we were doing at the start of the season. We’ve spoken about it, and everyone acknowledges we’ve got to address it and make sure it doesn’t keep happening.

“I just think, overall, we have to be better defensively. That has given us our platform for the first half of the season, but we’ve conceded too many goals of late.”

As always, football moves quickly, and it’s a huge game up next for Rehanne and her squad this week. The team travels to Manchester for the club’s first senior semi-final on Thursday night, when we take on Manchester City in the last four of the Continental Cup (Academy Stadium, 7pm).

“The incentive on Thursday is an opportunity to get into a final for the first time as a club, and that’s a huge thing for us,” added Rehanne. “So, we’ve got to be able to move on quickly.

“We’ve lost a little momentum, but we’ve had a discussion about a couple of the reasons why and we’ll look to fix them, learn from this and make sure, on Thursday, that we get back into the mindset the first time we played City (this season, a 1-0 win in September). We’ve got to be hard to beat.”