Spacey-Cale pleased with Southampton’s start in victory against Lewes | OneFootball

Southampton head coach Marieanne Spacey-Cale said that she was pleased with her side’s rapid start in yesterday’s 2-1 Barclays Women’s Championship victory against Lewes.

The Saints netted two goals in the opening 15 minutes as they raced into a clear lead. Lewes did pull a goal back before half-time but Southampton saw out the remainder of the game with some resolute defending.

When speaking to WSL Full-Time after the match, Spacey-Cale highlighted the significance of the team taking an early two-goal lead against Lewes, in contrast to their previous match where they fell 2-0 down in the early stages against Blackburn Rovers.

“We wanted to start the game better than we did last week and we certainly did that,” Spacey-Cale said. “It’s important that we’ve built on parts of the game from last week.

“This was a fresh game, so the importance of going out with a purpose; starting the game with the purpose of first thing you do, do it really well, don’t let them dominate us and we dominate them. I thought they did that really well for the first 20 to 25 minutes.”

Southampton let Lewes back into the game just before half-time and Spacey-Cale gave credit to her side’s opponents for their efforts.

She said “I think we lost our momentum a little bit. We just tried to rally round again at half-time, remember what we were doing really well and tried to push on for the second half. In fairness to Lewes, they played some really good football.”

Young forward Emma Thompson made her first league start against her former team and she capped the milestone with two quick-fire goals. Spacey-Cale praised the goalscorer for impressing when receiving the call to start.

She said “She’s deserved the chance to come in and play and she did exactly what we asked her to do. She’s a great goalscorer and she’s just understanding how we wanted her to play. I think she’s done really well today, so credit to her.”

Whilst promotion now looks unlikely, Spacey-Cale emphasised the importance of Southampton finishing the season off well with consistent performances.

“We want to finish as strong as we can, it’s important,” she said. “We’ve been a little bit inconsistent throughout the season, so if we can finish with three really strong, consistent performances, that’s what we want to do. We’ve got to finish the season well.”

Southampton are back in action after the international break when they play host to London City Lionesses at St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday 21 April 2024.