Rosella Ayane: “We’re all gutted, but we’ll learn and move on”

As they approach the middle game of a hugely-important week, Rosella Ayane delivered a little perspective in the aftermath of Spurs Women’s late, late disappointment against West Ham on Sunday.

Rosella also delivered on the pitch, and her penalty looked set to secure a deserved win at the Hive and take her team into second place in the FA Barclays Women’s Super League.

But after dominating and racking up 12 efforts to West Ham’s one in the second half, the visitors somehow found an equaliser in the second minute of added time as Kate Longhurst’s header - West Ham’s only effort on target - looped home for a 1-1 final scoreline, leaving Rehanne Skinner’s players crestfallen after what had been an impressive performance.

Rosella, who scored her first WSL goal since December last year, watched it all unfold from the bench after putting in a 78-minute shift. “When I came off, I thought, ‘come on, they’ve not had a chance all game’, and I was sure we’d see it out,” she reflected.

“But then, just one move at the end and they managed to equalise. We were all gutted. In those circumstances, it feels like a loss. But we’ve characters in the team like Shelina (Zadorsky) and Becky (Spencer) and they all homed in on the fact that it was a really good performance, and we have to take the positives in how we played, because we completely dominated.

“As I said to Shelina afterwards, United were probably thinking exactly the same on their way back to Manchester after we drew with Ria’s late free-kick (a 1-1 draw in November), but it’s annoying when it happens to you!

“If you get bogged down by it, you’re only thinking of that performance going into the next game. We move on. We’re in good form and we have a squad where every player will put in a shift. We’ll learn from Sunday and hopefully continue our momentum on Wednesday and Sunday.”

As mentioned previously, it’s a huge week. West Ham, and that chance to go second in the WSL, is now followed by our Continental Cup quarter-final against Championship high-fliers Liverpool back at the Hive on Wednesday evening (7.30pm). Then it’s United in the WSL at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday (12noon) - United one of three teams alongside Spurs and Chelsea currently level on 21 points, tucked in behind leaders Arsenal.

The focus is very much on Liverpool, though, and the Reds arrive at the Hive on a run of nine wins in 11 matches to top the Championship, where they’re unbeaten since the season’s opening day. They are also unbeaten in the Conti Cup, topping Group A to qualify for the last eight.

Something will have to give, then, as Spurs are also unbeaten in the Conti Cup - three wins in three to top Group C - in a season where the team has lost only three times in 15 matches in all competitions - Rehanne’s team are certainly tough to beat.

“Rehanne has built that culture since she came in, we’re really hard to beat and she said from the start that we were going to be the hardest-working team, and that shows in every game,” explained Rosella. “We’re not going to stop running until the full-time whistle has gone. That’s a culture she’s built, and everyone is on board. We’ll keep fighting until the end and that makes us resilient and hard to beat.

“Liverpool have real momentum in the Women’s Championship and a really good squad, so it’s going to be a test. It’s a quarter-final of a cup competition, so every team, whatever league, is going to come here and give their best performance.

“We’ll take it a game at a time and we’re in form as well. After Liverpool, it’s United away on Sunday, and that’s a massive game when you look at the table. I’ll maybe think more about United after Liverpool, because we all want to get into a semi-final of a cup. Every club wants to reach cup finals and if we beat Liverpool, we’re a step nearer. That would be an unbelievable achievement.”