Vilahamn calls for Spurs to remain professional when they face Bristol City | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn has highlighted the importance of remaining professional against Bristol City this weekend.

Spurs travel to Ashton Gate to face The Robins in their latest Barclays Women’s Super League fixture on Sunday afternoon.

Bristol City are rock bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table while they have failed to take a single point from any of their home matches so far this season. Spurs go into the game as favourites but head coach Vilahamn says that his side must remain professional and give their opponents the respect that they deserve.

“Sometimes, you get tricked that they’ve only won one game and are bottom of the table,” Vilahamn said when discussing Bristol City in the pre-match press conference. “In most of the games that they play, they’re competing very well. There are a few scenarios within games which make them lose but they have good players, they have good strategies to defend; they are good when they are compact and in the press moments as well.

“One way or another, they make a few mistakes and the opponent scores goals. I think that is a common issue for a new club in the league to deal with. They still have good enough players to win games in this league and good enough players to hurt us as well. If we go into this game thinking it’ll be easy, we will probably lose.

“I have enormous respect for Bristol City because I think they have good players and good tactics. They’re trying to do their best with the squad that they have and I think they’re doing it well. In these kind of games, it is so important for us to remain professional and show respect because we will need to put everything in to win.”

With six games remaining, Spurs are occupying sixth place in the Barclays Women’s Super League table. Vilahamn has not ruled out an even higher finish, although he knows that this aim is a big ask.

He said “If we do everything right in the last six games and we have good performances, I think we can compete with those two teams above us. I know that we are in a phase where we are not doing everything perfect, so it’s probably going to be hard. We can [challenge for fourth or fifth place], absolutely. I also think that there are a few teams below us that want to compete with us.

“What we need to focus on is the performance. If we have really good performances in the last six games, we could get fourth or fifth but there’s still a [six-point] gap and they’re two very good teams [above]. I don’t focus too much on that but I know that we can do it.

“We always focus on how to be better, how we can improve every week and after the season, we will look at the table to see where we finished.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Bristol City kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.