Tottenham Hotspur’s interim head coach Vicky Jepson says that her side must use playing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to their advantage when they take on Brighton & Hove Albion this evening.
Spurs return home to N17 for the second time this season when they face Brighton & Hove Albion. The Lilywhites’ previous appearance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw them slip to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Manchester United back in February.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference ahead of this evening’s fixture, Spurs’ interim boss Jepson said that her side must use the occasion to their advantage.
“First and foremost, there are no excuses when you are playing on a Premier League carpet,” Jepson said. “We’ve got to enjoy playing on that surface and playing at our home Premier League stadium in front of our fans, we have to use these things to our advantage. We have to make sure that we turn up for the fans and our friends and family as well.
“It is a great occasion, we want to embrace the challenge and we can’t wait to get there now.”
Spurs struggled to deal with defending set pieces in their 3-3 draw with Aston Villa last weekend and Jepson is demanding higher standards from her group against Brighton & Hove Albion.
She said “There are lessons that have been learnt from our last game in terms of the goals that we conceded from set pieces, we’ve been working on it all week. We gave ownership to the players to make sure that in those moments, we defend well from those set pieces.
“We went as a staffing group to watch Brighton play Everton and we saw them score from a free-kick, so we know that they’ve got threats. We have to limit those threats but also make sure that if we do give set pieces away, we set up quickly and keep to our roles, don’t leave players unmarked in the box like we did against Villa last weekend.
“We’ve got to make sure that we concentrate on ourselves and not listen to any external noise. We’ve got our clear game plan, everyone knows what their role is on the day and hopefully, we execute it.”
Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 5.15pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.