Martin Ho was full of delight following the full-time whistle at Goodison Park as he maintained a perfect start to life in the Barclays Women’s Super League with a 2-0 win over Everton on Sunday afternoon.
A challenging first away trip of the season – where we haven’t won at in our last six attempts in the WSL – we produced an impressive first half display in front of a packed crowd at Goodison Park and rightly opened the scoring on 27 minutes through a composed finish from Olga Ahtinen.
Cathinka Tandberg was handed her full debut and, having assisted Olga for the first goal, the Norway international produced a sensational finish to double our advantage just four minutes after the restart, sending a 40-yard lob over Courtney Brosnan and into the back of the net.
At the other end of the pitch, we remained defensively strong as Everton pushed for a way back into the game but they struggled to cut us open, as we preserved back-to-back clean sheets in the league.
Speaking to us afterwards, Martin reflected: “[I’m] really pleased. I think we’ve built on last week. It was a more complete performance in both phases, I maybe want more with the ball in the second half, but I know the players are trying to apply the right things.
“I thought the resilience, competitiveness we showed, the aggression off the ball but then on the ball, particularly in the first half, I thought we were very good. I asked for more shots on goal - last game we had just one on target, but today we had nine on target and 19 overall.”
Martin on preserving the clean sheet…
“It’s huge for confidence and belief, both as a team and individually. It gives the group a big lift, knowing they can be competitive, defend aggressively, and show passion and desire. I told the players: defending doesn’t require skill - you don’t pay for it. It’s just hard work and commitment, and today they showed that in abundance.”
Martin on Olga’s composure in front of goal…
“Tinka’s flick was a nice touch and Olga, who started on the left today, curled it into the bottom corner, it was a brilliant finish. That whole phase of play was really nice, we got into good positions and it was good awareness from Tinka to play her in. Olga stayed calm and composed, she didn’t rush the finish, and she fully deserved the goal. She had some great moments on the left side, which was a new tactical role for her. I’m really pleased for Olga.”
Martin on Tinka's sensational strike…
“Sometimes as a coach you think, ‘Why have you done that? We’ve just won the ball back!’ But instinctively she’s very clever. She did the same thing in training this week, scored over the goalkeeper from halfway. So, it didn’t surprise me, but it was brilliant to see it come off in the match. She was brilliant. We expect a lot from her, and she’s not at full capacity yet, still building physically, technically, and tactically. But her hold-up play, link play, and movement were excellent.”
Martin on building momentum ahead of the Man City clash…
“[It’s] Really important, because you want to build momentum. More importantly, you want to keep building on performances. We built on West Ham last week and now we’ve built again today. There’s still more to improve, but if we keep progressing, we give ourselves a chance to take results. And crucially, we don’t just want to nick games, we want to dominate them. Today, I thought we had large spells of dominance early on and then defended our half extremely well later.”