West Ham United captain Gilly Flaherty believes that her side must be more consistent against the teams in and around them in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table this season.
The Hammers’ results have been difficult to predict in the club’s first two years in the top flight and they were guilty of dropping points from good positions on a couple of occasions last season.
West Ham United defender Flaherty has been speaking to FA Women’s Super League Full-Time in a BBC press event for the launch of the club’s new behind-the-scenes documentary, ‘Squad Goals’. During the session, the player told us that being more consistent is really important in the coming season.
“For us to reach the Women’s FA Cup final in the first year probably put people’s expectations for us a lot higher for the second season than they should have been” Flaherty said. “For us, last year we didn’t have the best of seasons, it was very up and down and we lacked consistency.”
“I think the aim for us this year is to be hard to break down as a team and that we are more consistent with our results.
“We probably played better against teams last year that were top of the table and the teams which we should have picked up points against, we didn’t.
“This is something that I think we let ourselves down with.
“We will take things game-by-game, collect as many points as possible and also as many clean sheets as possible.”
West Ham United’s opening fixture of the 2020/2021 Barclays FA Women’s Super League season pairs them with their bogey team from last season, London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs defeated The Hammers on three occasions, in pre-season and in both league fixtures, while they also won an FA Women’s Continental League Cup tie at Rush Green on penalty kicks. The East Londoners will desperately want revenge over Karen Hills and Juan Amoros’ side with one of West Ham United’s most painful losses being the 2-0 home defeat by Spurs at The London Stadium in September. A crowd of 24,790 watched that match but sadly for The Hammers, they could not deliver a win.
Both clubs are tasked with kicking-on in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League this season and a fascinating battle is set to commence at The Hive tomorrow afternoon.
After watching their side in action on the FA Player, West Ham United fans are in for a real treat tomorrow evening with the BBC’s West Ham United documentary ‘Squad Goals’ set to air at 11pm. The full series will also be available on the BBC iPlayer.