Martin Ho pleased about 'ruthless' Tottenham Hotspur in 7-3 hammering of Aston Villa

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Head coach Martin Ho dissected Tottenham's eye-popping 7-3 win against Aston Villa in the Women's Super League.

In a second half that burst into life, six of the games ten goals being scored after the 68th minute. The three points takes Spurs to level on 29 points with rivals Arsenal, though the Gunners have two games in hand.

"Crazy in spells," Ho reflected. "I thought we started really well. They changed system, so I thought the players adapted really well, which they haven't done before. And with that change, I thought we opened them up really well.

"I said to the players at half-time we need to be diligent because the next goal can change the momentum. They got that second goal, but I thought our response straight away was very good.

"We were fluid. Our movements were good, our link-up play was good. We lacked, maybe at times, some technical details in certain moments, but I can't discredit this group of players. They gave everything today.

"I've demanded from them this week to make sure we're ruthless and they've done that today."

Along with more familiar scorers in Bethany England, Olivia Holdt and Cathinka Tandberg, three of Spurs' goals came through January signings netting for the first time in lilywhite.

"Some of those individual players needed to get [on] the scoresheet - Maika [Hamano], Julie [Blakstad], Signe [Gaupset]. I think that'll give them so much confidence and I'm delighted for them."

It is Tottenham's largest margin of victory since Ho took charge, eclipsing the 3-0's over Leicester and Birmingham City. The Englishman continuously praised his side's forward play and cool heads in front of goal.

"We're creating a lot chances. Against Chelsea we created, many other games, some games maybe just got the result, just over the line.

"I think once it clicked today in front of goal and there was more composure, more belief, more enthusiasm that they were going to go in.

"Credit to the players. I put pressure on them to finish, I put pressure on them to shoot and be dynamic in that part of the pitch.

"All credit to them. They do the work on the pitch, they have to deal with the pressure of scoring when we're in that attacking third. They [did] that today. It probably could have been more."

The blistering goalscoring may have been something to behold, but for Ho there were still enough blemishes at the back. He began by recalling a break in play when Spurs were 3-1 up.

"We just wanted to make some small changes to how we were building up, to maybe give us easier progression, and then, off the ball, how we defend in terms of nullifying their threats.

"I thought we did that in large parts. You're never going to stop every attack, it's impossible. They have some very, very dangerous players in that forward line. So you have to be prepared to defend the box. I thought we did it well in the first half, but second half we didn't defend it well enough.

"I never want to concede three goals in a game. It shouldn't be a shootout of we score one, they score another one. We want to make sure we can shut those games out."

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