Rehanne: “We know we can be better”

Spurs Women Head Coach Rehanne Skinner said there were positives to take from the performance in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Last season’s Women’s Super League champions went into the half-time break with a three-goal lead following a clinical first half, but we were able to get the ball forward into the final third and create promising opportunities, without the ruthless edge we showed in our 8-0 win against Brighton & Hove Albion three weeks prior.

“There were some real positive aspects of it in terms of us in possession,” Rehanne said. “I thought we moved the ball really well at times and played through Chelsea and got opportunities to get into the final third, but maybe didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that we had. 

“We made some mistakes and they capitalised on that and were very clinical in those moments, so I think that’s what we’re dealing with. We’ve got to cut those mistakes out to enable us to stay in games for longer.

“In the second half, you’re playing for pride and you’ve got to make sure that you do more in those situations. Certainly for us and the fans and collectively we want to make sure we give the best possible account of ourselves at all times. 

“You’re in a situation there at 3-0 where you’ve got nothing to lose and you’ve got to be fearless, but I think that’s something that we should really be approaching every game with the same attitude.

“Getting into the final third with a little bit of quality - we definitely did that today at times and Drew had a great opportunity in the latter stages of the game. It’s just increasing that so it’s more consistent, like when we played Brighton, when we were obviously a lot more ruthless in those moments. 

“Today, we’ve taken shots on from distances that probably aren’t going to create too much of a problem, when actually we could’ve got the ball in the box in those moments. That’s something that we’ve got to reflect on.”

We’ve had tough results before, such as September’s 4-0 defeat against Arsenal, but showed a positive response with wins against Reading and Liverpool, and we’ll be looking to do the same again for next weekend’s visit of Coventry United in the Continental League Cup at Brisbane Road.

“It’s football,” Rehanne said. “You have days where it goes for you and you have days where it goes against you. 

“Unfortunately, we’re not very happy with the result for obvious reasons and we know that we can be better and we certainly want to make sure that we can get better consistency with that moving forward, but ultimately it’s a long season and there’s still a long way to go for us, so we’ve just got to make sure we keep picking ourselves up and move on and focus on the next.”