West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner says that climbing off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table before Christmas would be a huge boost for her side.
The Hammers dropped into the relegation zone after last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Everton. The East Londoners travel to Leicester City this weekend with the aim of climbing off the bottom of the table before the Christmas break.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, West Ham United boss Skinner said that ending the year outside of the relegation zone would be a real boost for her side.
“One hundred percent, [moving off the bottom] then puts us in a better position going into Christmas. We can’t control what other teams do, we can only control what we are doing.
“It’s a huge motivational factor because nobody wants to be at the bottom of the table. The players aren’t happy with that and it is something that we want to try and resolve. We know that we want to up our game again at the weekend and try and get things over the line where we’ve previously fell slightly short in a couple of games.
“It would be a big boost for us collectively [a win] this weekend.”
West Ham United’s latest opponents Leicester City started the season by collecting seven points from their first three games but The Foxes are now winless in seven league outings. Skinner sees similarities between the two teams and says that her side are ready to fight for the points.
She said “Whenever you play Leicester, you know that Willie [Kirk] has got them playing quite aggressive, they are always on the front foot and they mark tightly all over the pitch, so you have to expect to be under pressure.
“It’s going to be important to be effective on the ball and to move it well, move it quickly. We want to make sure that we utilise our strengths as well. There are certainly areas that we feel we can exploit and they’ll say the same about us.
“We’ve both been in a similar situation in terms of things not going our way of late. Everyone will come out fighting, everyone wants to make sure they get three points before Christmas to finish off and go into the break a bit happier.
“We are definitely expecting a battle but we are going to be up for it. The players are really up for it, training has been excellent this week. We are ready to go and we want to work as hard as we can to get the points.”
West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Leicester City kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon.
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