Skinner: It was a great response and I’m pleased with the resilience and character shown

Rehanne Skinner was pleased to see West Ham United women’s team secure a point late on against Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.

The Irons left it late to equalise at Villa Park, with Shannon Cooke rising highest in second half stoppage time to level the game and pick up a valuable point on the road.

Whilst the boss was pleased with the character and resilience that her side showed to keep going until the very end, there was frustration with some of the chances that her side missed in a match where for large parts they had the upper hand.

Indeed, it was a much-improved performance in the 1-1 draw from last weekend’s defeat to Manchester City, and Skinner was pleased with the reaction from her team, and hopes that they can take the many positives into the final home game of the 2023/24 season, against Leicester City next weekend.

We started much better than we did last week.

I obviously wanted to response from the players this week, and we definitely got that.

The way that we played was much more positive in terms of our attacking football in particular, we created some really good chances in the first half, and we were a bit disappointed not to be in front at half time.

As the game evolved, naturally, it ebbed and flowed a little bit, and we have to absorb a bit of pressure in the second half. The game was a little bit against the run a play actually, given the momentum that they had was at different times, but the response was really positive from the players, and we’ve made sure that we’ve kept going all the way to the end and showed that character and resilience.

A point is really positive, given the nature of it and the timing, but in the first half I think we should have been ahead in the game.

I made some changes and wanted to make sure we got something out of the game.

We were getting a lot of success in wide areas, and I felt like Shannon could potentially be a bit of a threat in the air and in and around the box. Obviously, it came off on the set play, so we’re delighted for her and to get the point.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated that we didn’t take all three points.

A point on the road is important but given the nature of the game and the way that we’ve played the game, I think we deserved all three points.

I think the quality that we had on the ball and our defensive organisation caused them a lot of problems and minimised their clinical chances significantly. When you look at the balance of it, it’s a significant improvement on how we played last week.

We delivered the gameplan today and we created opportunities, and that’s a positive we have to take into the final two games of the season. Both of the games we have coming up are games that we should be wanting to take three points from.

That’s the attitude that we need to have, that West Ham ‘never say die’ attitude, and we want to make sure that we take as many points out of the games that we can.

We’re looking forward to being back at home next week in front of our fans.

We’re excited to have the crowd with us for that one against Leicester. Last time we played against them, we should have been up at half time in that game as well.

We want to give our fans a good finish to the season at home, so that’s our aim for next week.