Tottenham Hotspur head coach Rehanne Skinner says that this weekend’s opponents Aston Villa will look to make life very difficult for her side.
The two sides meet at The Hive on Sunday afternoon with Spurs looking to reignite their hopes of a late dash for a third-place finish in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
Aston Villa made life very hard for Spurs in the reverse fixture in the first half of the season and were unfortunate to lose the game 2-1. When speaking in her pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Skinner said that she expects this weekend’s encounter to be every bit as tough.
“It is a team that works very hard off the ball, they try to make it very difficult for teams to break through,” Skinner said. “They’re very direct and they have got pace when they are playing those direct balls as well so you definitely have to be on your guard.
“It was a tight affair last time that we played them and we have had a disrupted lead up to this game as well. We need to make sure that we go into the game in the best possible position against a team that are not going to make life easy for us and we need to be more than equal to that to get a result out of it. It’s going to be a tough test for sure.”
Spurs’ last two games have been postponed due to COVID-19 cases in the camp. Skinner says that she is pleased with the attitude shown by the players when preparing for this weekend’s game.
She said “We have worked hard to try and get resilience in the team and get our principles in place that allows us to go to them as a default when we are playing against tough opposition. Given the circumstances that we have been facing (COVID), it has been an everyday learning curve. Everybody has been really focused and trying to do everything that they possibly can to get ready for a game. Games are the things that we look forward to. We haven’t had one for a while, we have prepped for a few but haven’t got over the line with them for obvious reasons.
“We are very much looking forward to it, the players can’t wait to get on the pitch, that’s a positive because it puts you in a good headspace straight away and we’ve played them so we know what to expect.
“All we can do is be fully prepared, take the game to Villa and deliver on what we can. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge this weekend given the break that we’ve had but we are just going to give it our best shot.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday.
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