Angharad James: “That was the icing on the cake”

Spurs Women’s three wins of the season prior to Sunday’s game against Brighton had all been won by one-goal margins, so we were due a big win in the Women’s Super League, according to Angharad James!

“It was a long time coming,” she said after the game. “We’ve been putting in good performances lately and that was the icing on the cake today. That performance from start to finish was of high quality and we executed the game plan to a T. Onwards and upwards from here.”

It was James’ corner, played short to Molly Bartrip in the second minute of the game, that allowed us to take the lead.

“We wanted to start the game quick and fast and if we had set-pieces it was [about] how quick can we get it in and play? I saw the opportunity for Molly, she had a lot of space and it was a great finish, and that set us up well for the game. 

“We were on the front foot from there on and it was a great team performance today. We work on things in training in the week and it was something we’ve worked on this week and we’ll work on different things next week to see what the opponents leave us. It was a great finish from Molly and we scored from a few set-pieces today, so it was good to see.

“That’s something we've been working on in the week, just to be quick off the mark and set the pace of the game and play our game. That’s something we wanted to improve on over the last few weeks. Can we get higher quicker and get pressure on the ball quicker? Niki did that in the second goal and got the reward for it.”

Two became three when James’ corner in the 29th minute was flicked on by Eveliina Summanen for Ashleigh Neville to volley into the top right corner.

“Oh, she’s taken the assist? I mean, I said to Ash, does she want to give the bangers to anyone else? She’s taking them all at the minute! She’s playing quality football and scores them every week in training and it comes off every week in the game at the minute too, so hopefully we can just keep producing assists for her and she keeps scoring the goals.”

Despite beginning the second half with a 4-0 lead, we didn’t rest on our laurels, ruthlessly creating more chances with help from substitute Jessica Naz.

“That’s the most important thing,” James said. “This year we’re going to need the squad. We’re losing a few players at the minute through injury but we’ve had a few that have come back today. You can see everyone is ready and we work so hard in the week to be ready on game day. They came on and made a difference, they kept the intensity up for us today and we take that into the next game.”

Gracie Pearse came on for her Spurs debut towards the end of the game, and James was pleased to see her young teammate take to the field as a senior Spurs player for the first time.

“She’s a great character. She’s someone who keeps her head down, works hard, and she deserved that moment. I think it’s been a long time coming and she stepped on the pitch with quality today and you can see that she’s going to be a great player for us this year and in the future.”

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