Match day 6 Tottenham vs Manchester United.

After a long two week break, the WSL is back as 4th placed Tottenham welcomed 5th place Manchester United to the Hive. Tottenham’s last WSL match saw our Lilywhites lose their first match of the season away to Brighton, but bounced back 3 days later in the Conti Cup beating former Tottenham coach Karen Hills Charlton Athletic 1-0 before the international break.

Line ups.

Tottenham 4-3-3: Korpela in goal, Percival in at right-back, Bartrip and Zadorksy in the center of defence with Neville in at left-back. The Tottenham midfield was made of Cho, Clemaron and Graham. The Tottenham front 3 was made of Naz down the left, Simon down the right with Williams in the center.

Manchester United 4-2-3-1: Earps in goal, Batlle in at right-back, Mannion and Thorisdottir in the centre of defence and Bundell in at left-back. The United midfield was made of Hanson down the right, Zelem, Ladd, Toone and Galton down the left, while Russo was upfront for United in the number 9 role.

First Half.

United started the game the strongest of the two teams as they enjoyed a lot of possession, but it was Tottenham who had the first chance of the game in the 4th minute when Naz shot from an angle, almost catching Earps off guard but the United stopper reacted quickly to prevent the ball going into her top right-hand corner. United kept controlling the possession comfortably as Tottenham struggled to create any chances but the Spurs defence held strong as they kept Toone and Galton at bay. With all of United’s possession, they were unable to test Korpela in the Tottenham goal until the 35th minute when Russo beat Zadorksy but her effort was well saved by Korpela, the loose ball fell to Galton who should have put United 1 up but her effort was well blocked by Percival.

Tottenham came straight back at United and 3 minutes later Naz had a chance for Tottenham as she found herself unchallenged, rushed her shot from distance but her effort sailed over the United bar. After a few stoppages, the 4th official indicated a minimum of 5 minutes of added time. Just as Tottenham was dominating the game United got a goal against the run of play when Russo scored a wonderful goal out of nothing taking on Zadorksy and Neville and blasting from an angle past Korpela before Bartrip could get a challenge in to give United the lead at half-time.

Second Half.

Skinner made a substitute at halftime with Chi replacing Cho, United again started the half the strongest and could have had a second within the first minute of the 2nd half when Leah Galton was allowed to head unchallenged but her effort went wide of Korpela’s goal. Two minutes later United was at it again this time Toone took on Neville and shot from distance but was a comfortable save for Korpela. A minute later Tottenham came straight back at United with Simon latching onto a loose ball and shooting from distance but her effort was way over for a United goal-kick.

Tottenham was almost punished in the 56th minutes when Naz lost the ball in midfield, United broke with Russo who found Galton with a pass but her effort was well blocked and deflected out for a corner by Zadorksy. Tottenham should have had an equaliser in the 65th minute when Graham latched onto a loose ball and shot from distance almost catching Earps off guard but the United stopper managed to get a hand to the ball preventing the Tottenham equaliser. Tottenham finally started to look like they had found their rhythm again and in the 71st minute it was Tottenham who again came close to getting a goal with Naz spotting Earps off her line and shooting from the right but her effort sailed over the United stoppers goal.

Tottenham continued to dominate possession and push United back as they searched for an equaliser but United caught Tottenham on the counter in the 79th minute with Russo on the attack but good defending by Chi put the ball out for a United corner. Staniforth’s corner found Zelem unmarked in the Tottenham box but she was unable to get the header on target as Tottenham got away the loose ball. United had a shout for a penalty waved away in the 83rd minute after there seemed to be a foul by Neville on Russo in the box.

The 4th official Indicated a minimum of 5 minutes stoppage time as Tottenham continued to search for an equaliser. Tottenham came close in the 90th minute when a quick counter by Tottenham led to Neville having a shot from distance but her effort went wide for a United goal-kick. A minute later some wonderful 1-2 play by Green and Chi led to a Chi shot from the left but her effort was just wide of Earps left-hand post. Tottenham finally got their reward in the dying moments of the match when a Tottenham attack lead to a foul on Williams, Percival took the freekick from distance and the ball sailed past everyone and took an awkward bounce in front of Earps as the ball looped in over the United stopper and into the goal for a well-deserved equaliser for the Lilywhites.

United came straight back at Tottenham and almost got a winner when a United attack lead to Galton crossing from the left onto the Tottenham box finding Russo but her effort was well saved by Korpela to deny United a winner with the last kick of the game.

Player of the match.

After the defeat to Brighton, every player gave everything against a very good United team. But our player of that match has to go to Kit Graham, she took a heavy knock early in the match but carried on and fought all game and gave Mary Earps a few problems in goal and deserved to bag herself a goal.

Post match analysis.

Manchester United came into this match with a psychological advantage as our Lilywhites had never taken points against United in the WSL. After defeat two weeks ago against a very solid Brighton side, United came into this game as favourites and in the opening 10 minutes, it was United that showed their class and why they pushed the Chelsea, Arsenal and City all the way last season.

Once Tottenham settled into the game they demonstrated why they have been almost impossible to beat this season. Tottenham still have some work to do to compete with the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea. Once again we feel that Skinner still doesn’t know the strongest 11 that should play. Neville is not the best left-back and Harrop should be playing weekly, Addison should be starting in place of Naz and Chi needs to start improving or will need to be dropped if we want any chance of keeping this run going as fixtures start to become more regular.

Keeping possession is something our Lilywhites have no problem doing this season as they demonstrated against a possession-based United team but more work still needs to be done in midfield to create more clear cut chances and our forwards need to be more clinical. Maybe in January Skinner needs to look at trying to bring in a world-class striker or even look at City and Chelsea at players that are not getting much playing time such as Beth England who would be the perfect finisher that Tottenham needs to finish games off. The next match is a North-London Derby and our Lilywhites need to be clinical in front of goal if we want to take anything from the Gunners. We hope that fans will turn up and back our Spurs Women as they need us to make as much noise as possible against our London rivals. Lets keep pushing and keep this fantatsic run going COYS!!!

Next match.

Our next match needs no introduction, its Arsenal at the Hive and we need all our fans to show up for this one and make as much noise as possible and Spur our Lilywhites to Victory. Tickets can be purchased over at https://bit.ly/3ks0cbw. The match will also be broad cast Live on BBC One at 13.15 this Saturday November 13th.