Robert Vilahamn was pleased with the strong performance in our final home game of the campaign but, once again, he was left frustrated to not come away with a point as Chelsea secured a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Despite a strong start from ourselves in N17, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock just after the half-hour mark when they were awarded a penalty. Catarina Macario, who won the spot-kick after she was fouled by Ashleigh Neville, calmly converted to put the Blues ahead – and that proved to be enough for the WSL champions.
We created a number of opportunities to find a leveller in the game, Charlotte Grant denied one-on-one by Hannah Hampton on the stroke of half time while a free-kick from Eveliina Summanen whistled just wide of the post, as we were unable to break down one of the best defences in the league.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Robert told us: “The performance and how we were brave on the ball, how we tried to play, it’s something to be proud of, I think to play against Chelsea and playing that style, it was very good.
“But then, of course, we lose again and that’s very frustrating as I actually think we deserved a least one point. This year has all been about not nailing it, but we are going to learn so much from this, we are still so brave, still so good in the game and we just need to make sure we get better in the penalty box. We need to score more goals, we need to defend a little bit better, but this was a big step against a top team to see how we acted.”
Robert on finding ourselves behind at the break…
“We need to be honest, we are not good enough in those phases of the game and we’re losing game because of that, so we need to make sure we develop that because we shouldn’t have lost as many games as we have done this season. That’s something we need to be better at but, performance-wise and how we want to develop the players, how they’re taking steps, it was massive to see.”
Robert on taking the positives into Everton next weekend…
“The last four or five games have been so much better in performance but now we want to have a win before we go into the summer break, to make sure we get something emotionally as well with it. It has been tough to say every week ‘we had a good performance when we’re losing’ so I’m hoping we can have a good performance and win that game, make sure we go into the summer break, reload, take the right steps and learn from this season.”
Robert on being back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…
“I mean, we love this stadium. We can feel it with the fans, this is our home, this is where we want to be, and I can see everyone that is here is also enjoying it. I think the football becomes so much better here because you can play the style you want to do here, the pitch is so much better and bigger, so this is our happy place and even though we lost, we feel at home, and we really enjoy to be here with our fans.”
Robert on a message to the supporters…
“I’m just so proud of them for supporting us, every game, we haven’t been great to return wins for them this year, but the way they support us, the way they come back and cheer for us, it’s one of the coolest things for this Club, to have those fans behind us and we will do everything we can to take steps.”