Grim up North for Spurs Women
It’s time for another Spurs Women update, sadly another one that’s tough to write about… but here goes!
The Lilywhites faced Manchester City at The Etihad last Friday evening, manager Robert Vilahamn opted for a 4–4–2 again but with an altered line-up with Luana Bühler and Drew Spence making the starting XI.
It took the home side less than a minute to score, Ash Neville passed the ball back to Clare Hunt, Khadija “Bunny” Shaw sprinted into the Spurs box and slotted past Becky Spencer with ease.
It took The Citizens just fifteen minutes to double their lead, Lauren Hemp came in from the left and skillfully toyed with Ella Morris and crossed in to Khadija Shaw who headed past fellow Jamaican international team mate Becky Spencer.
By the 67th minute City were 3–0 up, prior to getting their third they continued to their attacks before half-time and by this point Spurs looked really lethargic. Former Wolfsburg player Jill Roord combined well with Lauren Hemp and the Dutch international blasted past Becky Spencer. It was a well-worked goal with Hemp pacefully weaving around Spurs’s defence, Roord made a quick dribble and fired in.
Literally a minute later Spurs were 4–0 down. Lauren Hemp found Khadija Shaw near the Spurs post and she slotted in from being completely unmarked.
I really can’t think of any positives, well other than we didn’t lose 7–0 this time I guess! Khadija “Bunny” Shaw was a menace as expected and really went down a rabbit hole in the game scoring a hat-trick and showing no mercy, latching onto balls and never been afraid of getting stuck in.I thought Lauren Hemp had a good game and was a constant threat every time she went on the attack and entered Spurs’s final third. On the flip side, with regards to Spurs going on the attack, they only had one shot on target!
Although the defence is the key talking point in this one with failing to mark and just poor errors in general, there seemed no creativity in midfield and rarely made attacking opportunities which also really cost the team.
Robert Vilahamn said post match:
“It’s hard to play against Man City away, you have a game plan you have a strategy and then when you’re one nil down after 20 seconds and two nil down after forty minutes, it’s of course extremely hard to play good football and play a game of it. On the other hand I feel like the players gave a really good try after the second goal and the last twenty five minutes of the first half is the best phase of the game, where we actually play out and where we’re looking like what we want to look like. The end product doesn’t really nail it, we create half chances and look quite good, a good phase. Second half, the beginning of it, trying to find out how we can go forward and press them how much do we have to defend as well, because they have some good players. Disappointed that we received the fourth straight after the third because it’s something we’ve spoken about as well and how we make sure we stay in the game and then of course it’s tough because mentally you’re away against them and they score those goals is tough to do the right decision, so we just need to look at this game individually and tactically and make sure we’re learning from that because we have a big game coming up”.
I find at times he is a bit of a happy clapper with his comments, to be honest I only saw the highlights but when he mentioned the team gave a good try, unless I was somehow was watching a different game, Spurs looked completely disorganised and our heads really dropped.
Saturday is going to be a very nervy one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when we face Arsenal. The Woolwich Wanderers currently sit in fourth place, and in their last game beat Brighton 5–0 (who are above them in the table).
Could we pull off a win at home like season? 👀 Honestly, I’m not sure especially after playing the majority of the top half teams already (which hasn’t gone to plan!), I’d take a draw, but right now even that’s asking for a lot! Hoping I’m wrong of course 🤞🏼, as usual, up the Spurs!
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