Tottenham was back in WSL action after what has been a fantastic week of results for our Lilywhites. Last weekend Tottenham took on league leaders Arsenal at the Hive where a record-breaking 2896 fans turned up to see our Lilywhites take their first-ever points against Arsenal. It was most certainly a game of two halves and our Lilywhites had opportunities to take the win with Ash Neville having a clear chance to put Tottenham 2 up in the second half. Overall it was a solid and positive performance by Tottenham and a result that the team and fans can be proud of. Highlights of last weeks match against Arsenal can be seen below on our youtube channel.
Tottenham was back in action midweek in the Conti Cup where Tottenham travelled to Watford in their second match of the group stages. Tottenham put in a fantastic performance but things did feel like it just wasn’t going to go Tottenham’s way when our Lilywhites had 3 goals disallowed. Once Tottenham got their breakthrough the onslaught began and Tottenham ran out 0-11 winners with Angela Addison and Rosella Ayane both bagging a hat-trick each. Highlights of Tottenham’s match against Watford can be seen below.
Tottenham travelled away to West Ham for matchday 8 with the hammers sitting in 8th place after last week’s 2-2 draw to Reading, while our Lilywhites sat in 4th after a historical point against the Gunners.
Line Ups.
West Ham 3-5-2: Arnold in goal, Flaherty, Cissoko and Fisk in the back for the Hammers. The West Ham midfield was made of Svitkova down the right, Yallop, Brynjarsdottir and Hasegawa in the centre while Longhurst was down the right. The West Ham front-line was made of Walker and Evans.
Tottenham 4-3-3: Korpela in goal, Ale in at right-back Bartrip and Harrop in the centre of defence with Neville in at left-back. The Tottenham midfield was made of Percival, Clemaron and Cho with the Tottenham front three being made of Simon, Williams and Graham.
First Half.
The game started quite evenly matched but it was West Ham’s Hasegawa who had the first chance of the game when the ball was won in the middle of the park, the Japanese international shot from distance but her effort was over the bar untroubling Korpela in the Tottenham goal. Tottenham should have had an early lead when in the 6th minute a miskick by Arnold was intercepted by Percival who found a Simon unmarked in the West Ham box but the Australian blasted over the bar from point-blank range to let West Ham off the hook.
Tottenham had another great chance in the 11th minute when after 2 corner’s Neville connected with the cross but headed just wide of Arnold’s goal. Tottenham came straight back at West Ham and in the 14th minute Graham played through Percival who rushed her effort from distance as her shot flew over Arnold’s bar as the West Ham stopper remained untroubled. The game then began to slow down and most of the play took place in the middle of the park as both sets of midfielders battled to dominate possession.
Things got bad for Tottenham in the 28th minute when play stopped as Kit Graham was stretchered off with a suspected broken leg after a heavy collision with Kate Longhurst. The setback didn’t knock Tottenham’s confidence, if anything it gave the Lilywhites more fight as they began to dominate possession. Simon was presented with a chance in the 33rd minute but she was unable to get the ball under control before it was taken off her. Tottenham came close again in the 42nd minute after a Tottenham attack drew a foul from Longhurst on Neville, Percival took the free-kick for Tottenham but the ball was knocked out for a corner just before Williams could attack the ball. After a minimum of 4 minutes of stoppage time was given, Tottenham came close again when an Arnold miskick came to Neville who found Williams with a pass but the linesman gave a late flag for offside to deny Tottenham the opener.
Second Half.
Skinner made a change at half-time with Addison coming on for Cho. The first chance of the 2nd half fell to Tottenham in the 54th minute when Tottenham broke with Simon who found Williams but she left the ball as she was offside and the ball came to Chi who turned the ball in past Arnold but the goal was controversially disallowed for offside against Williams even though she didn’t touch the ball. West Ham changed tactics and pushed their back-line further up to prevent Tottenham attacks as Tottenham found themselves offside more regularly.
Tottenham came close again in the 64th minute when Williams found Addison with a pass, but couldn’t find a way through. Addison cleverly played a 1-2 with Ale before finding Neville with a pass but Neville rushed her shot as her effort went just wide of Arnold’s right-hand post. West Ham came straight back at Tottenham with a counter, a Bartrip’s miskick fell straight to West Ham possession before Yallop shot from distance but luckily for Bartrip her effort went just wide of Korpela’s goal.
West Ham kept up the high line and in the 68th minute, the Hammers got their breakthrough against the run of play after some lovely play by Evans down the wing found Brynjarsdottir with a pass who shot past Korpela to give West Ham the lead. Tottenham was again denied a clear goal in the 75th minute when Bartrip took the Tottenham free-kick, Arnold missed the punch, the ball fell to Chi who put the ball away but the goal once again was disallowed for a foul on Arnold even though there was no touch on the West Ham goalkeeper.
Tottenham kept pushing forward looking for an equaliser and in the 82nd minute after the ball rebounded around in the West Ham box from a Chi effort the ball came to Williams who was denied at point-blank range by Arnold to keep the Hammers 1 up. The 4th official indicated a minimum of 4 minutes added time and Tottenham had a call for a penalty turned down in the 92nd minute when Neville’s shot was palmed away by Arnold, Addison latched into the loose ball and seemed to be brought down in the box. Tottenham had the final effort of the game in the 96th minute when Neville again in the attack took a shot from distance, her effort was palmed away by Arnold but the referee brought the game to an end before any Tottenham players had a chance to attack the loose ball.
Player of the match.
Tottenham had a difficult afternoon as West Ham played very physical and with a lot of holding players making it difficult for Tottenham to find their flow. Every player gave what they could to break down a stubborn West Ham but our player of the match goes to Ash Neville as she got forward on numerous occasions and was the one that threatened the West Ham goal the most.
Post match analysis.
We feel Skinner put out a pretty solid team but we would have liked to see Addison in the starting 11 but overall it was a solid, attack-minded side to face a solid Hammers side away from home. Unfortunately for Tottenham it just wasn’t meant to be, let’s not get things confused Tottenham didn’t play their greatest game but Skinner had to play a makeshift side due to injuries and to add insult to injury Kit Graham was stretchered off on 30 minutes after a horrid collision.
The game was a very scrappy and it wasn’t a pretty performance by any of the two teams, West Ham was solid and once they got the goal against the run of play everyone was back defending making it difficult to break the Hammers down. Tottenham did have some misfortune with 1 of the two disallowed goals definitely not offside but that’s what happens when you don’t have VAR in the WSL. Tottenham should have had a penalty in added time when Arnold spilt a Neville shot and seemed to have brought Addison down but realistically Tottenham did not do enough to win the game.
All teams have off days and Tottenham just weren’t good enough today, West Ham took their chance while Tottenham missed the few opportunities they were presented with. Maybe had their been a different referee things could have been different but this Tottenham team still showed heart despite having an off day. The team now needs to pick themselves up, learn from the defeat and go to Villa in December and take all 3 points no matter what.
Next match.
Tottenham’s next league match is away to Aston Villa on December 12th, the match will be broadcast live on the FA Player for those that are unable to travel.
Tottenham’s next home match will be on December 19th against Everton, tickets for the match can be purchased at https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/tickets/buy-tickets/women/match-tickets/. The game will also be broadcast live on the FA Player at 14.00 on December 19th.
days
hours minutes seconds
until
Tottenham vs Everton
Women's Soccer Fans 