Rehanne: “I’m delighted to have Chi back”

Spurs Women suffered a disappointing 3-0 loss at home to Manchester City on Saturday, but one positive to come from the game was the return of Chioma Ubogagu, who had been ruled out for the past nine months due to anti-doping violations.

“I’m delighted to have Chi back in the squad,” Rehanne said. “The circumstances over the course of the last nine months have been really challenging for Chi. She’s a fantastic person and it was a mistake that happened and she’s paid the price for that, which we understand, but I’m delighted to have her back in the squad. She’s a great person to have in the team and she’ll just build on from here and move forward.”

Unfortunately, Ellie Brazil picked up an injury early on and had to be taken off eight minutes into her first start for Spurs.

“I spoke to her at half-time and she was comfortable at that moment,” Rehanne said. “It’s important that we get a scan as soon as possible, which we will do. Hopefully, it’s not as severe as what potentially was felt like in the moment based on how it happened. It’s one of those - they’ve gone in for a 50/50 and she’s committed to it and unfortunately felt the receiving end of that.”

As for the game itself, Rehanne was largely pleased with her side’s performance, despite the result.

“Overall, for 90 minutes, I thought we were much more consistent in everything that we did today,” she said. “We moved the ball a lot better, possession was better comfortably in terms of re-gains. We were much better than the last 20 minutes against Liverpool. We created some positive chances and unfortunately I think we made there mistakes and it cost us three goals. 

“The timing of the one in the second half in particular changes the landscape and helps to build confidence a little bit more, but we stuck at it and I thought we worked hard until the end of the game and that showed what we’re about. It’s disappointing, for sure, we do not want to be losing games, but at the end of the day it’s definitely an improved overall performance that we want to take into the game against Brighton next.

“We started brightly in the second half and then made a mistake and gave the ball away in and around an area where it’s very difficult to re-gain shape. The strike was a good strike and difficult to deal with at that moment. When you have those opportunities to really build yourself back into the game, we just maybe needed to simplify it a bit there. Overall, the players worked incredibly hard and I think for 90 minutes we were much better and three goals is probably a little bit flattering because we’ve sort of given them two of those goals.”

Rehanne gave Ashleigh Neville her 50th WSL appearance for Spurs on Saturday, and was full of praise for such a reliable player.

“50 appearances for the club and she’s been a fantastic asset to the team,” she said. “Whether it’s on the pitch or off the pitch, you know what you’re going to get from Ash and I think she just continues to show everybody what she’s about and it’s very difficult to find people who are as consistent as she is across the league. It’s really good for her to play the way that she’s played again today and influence the game how she has. I’m delighted for the 50 caps.”

Next up, we travel to Crawley to face Brighton & Hove Albion at the Broadfield Stadium on Sunday.

“We’ve got to build on the improved performance that we’ve had,” Rehanne said. “The players had a really open, honest conversation at the end and there were things that they weren’t happy with, but there were definitely things that we’ve shown significant improvements on since the start of the season, so I think we just need to keep building on that element in terms of out of possession with the way that we press, which was much better today, and just believing in that because it created chances for us again today. Then it’s just literally about making sure that we take on a few more chances that we passed when we could’ve had a shot, and continuing to build the momentum in terms of the stuff in front of goal. The team worked really hard today and I’m proud of the performance that we put in. The result is disappointing but we just need to pick ourselves up and move forward.”