Rehanne Skinner: “It’s a platform to jump from”

Spurs Women put in a faultless performance for Sunday’s 8-0 win against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Women’s Super League, and Rehanne Skinner was full of praise for her side after the game.

“I’m delighted and obviously really proud of the players with the way they applied themselves today. Right from the first minute, we showed our intent and were really positive in terms of pressing and getting high and creating problems for them, but I think, overall, the biggest difference is you’ve got to take on opportunities and that’s something that we’ve been working on and talking about and I think today showed what the players are capable of and what we’re capable of as a team in front of goal. 

“It’s taken a little bit of time for the players to believe that and we needed this today. It’s always been there but we just needed to make sure we got a result like this today and it will definitely be a platform from which to jump from really.

“We had seven shots in the first half and scored four, so obviously that’s a huge improvement on some of the areas that we’ve been working on in the past and that was the challenge today really. We have to be better in front of goal. We’ve been defensively working really hard throughout the whole of pre-season and the season. Clean sheet, eight goals - everybody’s done their job and everybody’s contributed to that brilliantly today.

“We’ve got players that haven’t had as many minutes and we’re trying to make sure the squad’s in the best possible place with players returning from injuries and things like that. 

“Gracie Pearse has been diligently working and waiting for an opportunity. She’s a young player that’s got talent and it was just finding the right time for her to get involved. I thought she did very well when she came on as well and obviously Chi and Ros, who had an opportunity towards the end there. It’s just important to get everybody in the best possible position and it’s been challenging to do that, to be honest, because of injuries and things like that, but we’re now getting to a better place where the squad depth is available more consistently.”

Ashleigh Neville has been instrumental so far this season and now has four goals and two assists to her name from six appearances in all competitions.

“You get what you see,” Rehanne said. “Every single week she consistently delivers. She’s been fantastic for us in higher positions. We know she can defend, we know she can be a full-back, but actually her impact in the final third with two goals and two assists today says it all really. She’s got real intent and sets the tone and I think that creates teams problems, especially with the speed at which she starts games. She’s just a fantastic person to have in and around the team because they all want to get on board and everybody supports each other and I think that the team performance today has been excellent.

“We’ve been building to this point anyway. There are lots of little parts of the game that you have to look at week in, week out and consistency’s been really important. We’ve kind of moved in a more positive direction defensively in terms of our application and work rate and how we do that collectively, and that’s shown today, but then we’ve added the stuff at the other end of the pitch today which we’ve maybe been quite critical of and we haven’t done as well as we should have. 

“When you get the two parts right, now it’s about making sure we go and do that again against Everton and make sure we take our chances and take on opportunities when they present themselves. Clearly we’ve got the players and the ability to score goals when we focus on it.

“I take pride in the clean sheets and we’ve always done that but we’ve just maybe not pulled that together in the past, but today, Brighton are a transitional team who get bodies forward and they try to overload you as often as possible and they carried on doing that right through to the end of the game, and I think you’ve got to constantly stay switched on and focused. 

“The commitment to that and everybody getting back into position, slowing things down and trying to force them away from goal with blocks and bodies, you have to have that and be able to do both sides of the game and I think we’ve been brilliant at that again today.”