Martin Ho spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of our Subway Women’s League Cup group phase clash against Aston Villa at Brisbane Road (7pm UK).
Here are some key points he had to say…
Martin on taking positives from Friday night…
“There were positives. Before we conceded the first goal, I thought we were clearly the better team but obviously there were lapses in concentration and small moments where they finished from around the edge of the box. We’ve looked back at it, reviewed it. Lize [Kop] made a good penalty save, there’s maybe other moments in the game where we probably could’ve defended better, and we should’ve stopped two or three of them (goals) going in, if I’m honest. But when you play against a team like that, everything they create, they score, and that’s a sign of where they’ve got to individually. I thought second half we responded better, the players that came in impacted exceptionally well and Olivia’s [Holdt] goal was good. Matilda did really well so I thought there were positives throughout. We’ve definitely taken steps forward as a group, in general, since the start of the season. If you’re sitting here now as a coach, you have taken six points from your first possible nine… 100%.”
Martin on the lack of opportunities against City…
“I thought we got into attacking positions well, I thought we just lacked that cutting edge. Against teams like that, you’re not always going to create big chances, you maybe get half chances throughout the game. I don’t think there are many teams who have out-possessed Man City and not many teams with more accurate pass completion against them in a long time. Those are big positives, we want to contest possession, we want to have it, and I thought there were spells in the game where we did. We didn’t show the courage and bravery to break them down like we have in other games before, but we have taken big steps forward. This may be a bump in the road – but it’s a good one to learn from. The attitude of the players, the belief in the players, it is still the same.”
Martin on the Women’s League Cup…
“No matter if it’s in the league, the Subway Women’s League Cup or FA Cup, you want to be competitive in those competitions. It’s an opportunity for us to do that tomorrow. We need to build momentum and confidence, work towards this game, there’s no other focus apart from this game. We need to make sure we go out and perform – this is a competition we want to perform well in.
“For me and this Club, it means more than just a cup competition. It’s an opportunity to win, to put ourselves in a place where we complete for titles and honours, and that’s what I’m here for. I’m not here just to take part in the competition, flip the team, rotate it all… and not show any respect. That’s not me. We’re going out there with a team to try and make sure we win the fixture.”
Martin on team selection…
“It does present an opportunity when these games come around, but I’m not going to just turn the team on its head – that’s not me. I want to make sure we win games, winning breeds confidence, breeds belief in the group, and it changes the whole mentality and attitude in a team. When the opportunity presents itself to the players, they need to take it. They don’t need any pressure with that. It does give them an opportunity to show they can be in a starting eleven If that’s in games moving forward. If we can see a response, that’s the most important thing to me.”
Martin on Matt Beard’s tragic passing…
“It’s a really sad moment and my condolences go to his family and friends. Matt a wonderful guy, a wonderful human being. A really big heart and big courage but, more importantly, what he has achieved in Women’s football but where he has put in on the map, from where he took Chelsea and what he achieved at Liverpool, West Ham and Bristol City. He will be very sadly missed and he was a huge icon in Women’s football. I want to make sure that we can do everything we can as a Club, and I can, to support the family. The wider football community, in these moments, always show their true colours. The best thing for us is to enable his memories to live on.”
Martin on what he has learnt since the City defeat…
“That we have the ability to respond. We showed that in pre-season a little bit in games. The ability to come back out, second half, apply what we wanted to apply in the first half, but with more aggression, commitment, determination to doing that. In the first 20 minutes, we showed a lot of quality and the game was in a really good balance. I’ve learnt a lot about where we are, where we need to be, to go. You can’t get really high after two wins in two games, then get really low with the lows. Am I happy we’re conceding five goals? Definitely not. Are the players happy? Definitely not. That’s because the mindset has definitely change. I’ve said to the playing group – we’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. We can’t be on the back end of conceding goals, where we could’ve contained them a lot more.”
Martin on how he was after the game…
“It’s more about passion. I don’t want to lose games. I don’t want the players to lose games. I want to make sure we win games. The most disappointing part for me was the performance, we didn’t show our true colours for large periods of the game. We have to make sure that as staff we review what we did, the players review what they did, but the accountability and responsibility lies with me. I pick the team and put the game plan in place. I have to make sure I give the players every opportunity to perform. When it doesn’t work, I have to try and fix those errors, make sure they don’t happen again.”