‘We want to finish in a positive place’ – West Ham keen to collect final day points says Skinner | OneFootball

West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner has highlighted the importance of her side ending the season strongly at Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon.

The Hammers have little-but-pride left to play for at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with the East Londoners almost certain to end the campaign in 11th place in the Barclays Women’s Super League table.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, West Ham United manager Skinner highlighted the importance of ending the campaign well, insisting that her side will not be going into this afternoon’s fixture with a reserved mentality.

“First and foremost, it’s a London derby, so it’s going to be a battle, that’s what you expect,” Skinner said. “I don’t think either team will be approaching the game as last game of the season, winding down, we definitely won’t.

“It’s an opportunity to continue an unbeaten run for us, that’s important because we want to finish in a positive place from that side of things. We will be doing everything that we can to make sure that happens. We are unbeaten in our last three WSL away games against Tottenham, so we want to keep that going as well.

“It’s important for us to finish in a positive place to show that we have moved forward as a team.”

Skinner was appointed West Ham United manager last summer and she has been tasked with overseeing a significant rebuild. The Hammers boss has implemented her own playing style and new players have been added across the season, however, there is still lots of work to do. Reflecting on the 2023/2024 campaign, Skinner said that there are lots of positives to take away and she is already excited about what’s to come next season.

She said “This year, we always knew the project, we knew it would be a journey. There were lots of things in the football club that we wanted to evolve. It was a bit of a new era really for the women’s squad and how we wanted to get the women’s team more integrated in the wider club. Obviously, we talk about the football but there are so many other things that need to align with that behind-the-scenes that people don’t get to see.

“Over the course of the year, embedding the philosophy, we’ve played well; we’ve played better since January in terms of performances, there have been a lot of improvements. There are obviously some areas where we’ve not been as clinical as we would have liked to be and a lot of lessons learned from that. There are some key areas of focus for next year but with the evolution of the staff group and the evolution of the squad in the summer, it’ll help us be in a much better position.

“Overall, we would like to have finished higher for the fans and for everyone involved but there are a lot of positives to take out of the season that can set us up to be in better stead next year. We are looking forward to that already.”

West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 3pm.