Wednesday night saw Charlton Women lose their first game of the 2024/25 season against Tottenham Hotspur. The team put in a positive performance against the WSL side and Hills' shares her thoughts on the midweek battle...
Today was a tough game for the team where the team had to battle hard and play at a very fast pace. How do you think they the team handled the game?
“It was a tough game for the team, playing against a WSL team was always going to be a different challenge but we felt that we handled the game in a really positive way. The performance was excellent from minute one to the final whistle. Conceding early, it could have been a very different way but I thought the girls regrouped really quickly and obviously were able to hold out and score to take us to 1-1 at half time.”
The first half in particular, was a test for the team especially conceding early, but some great play from Ellie and Katie led to a goal right at the end of the half. How important was that goal in keeping the team motivated for the second half?
"We knew they were going to have a lot more possession, we needed to be patient and have a good shape, win our duels and when we gained the ball we needed to have quality on the ball and I thought we did that in large spells of the game. Katie and Ellie combining and scoring the goal was really important to the team going in to half time, giving us that belief and knowing that in the second half we could come out and continue that play.”
In the second half, the team looked a lot more comfortable on the pitch, what do you think changed when they came out for the second half?
“In the second half we looked to change as we knew that in midfield with only two it was quite hard task for them to get across the pitch. We then changed to two forward players and went into a midfield three which helped us keep putting the pressure on and I thought overall it was a really good second half performance. I thought we matched them and created some really key performances and opportunities."
Finally, despite the result, the team put in a really committed performance. What do you think they learnt from today’s game?
“Overall, I was gutted for the players because I thought they put in such a fantastic performance and probably deserved to go to penalties for all their efforts. But we have come away with a lot of positives, the girls feel they gave it absolutely everything and I can't disagree, I think they left everything out there and it was a really good performance against very good WSL side and now we need to learn from that. We know that the game was quick and it’s the first time over the last couple of weeks where we haven’t dominated the ball. We have learnt how disciplined we are out of possession and how structured we are, we just need to learnt that when we do retain the ball we need keep the quality to hold the ball and I I think we need that in some really key moments.
Overall I think it was a really positive performance and the result obviously didn’t reflect that but it won’t dampen us, it will make us stronger and more hungry and now we regroup and prioritise the next game which is Sunderland at home this weekend.”