Rehanne Skinner believes that West Ham are moving in the right direction after their 1-1 draw to Leicester.

Since taking over the West Ham Women’s team, it has not been smooth sailing for Skinner. With only one win to their name, the Hammers find themselves in a relegation battle as we approach the halfway point in the season. 

Fortunately, things are starting to look slightly brighter in their last two games where they were unlucky to lose to Everton and picked up a deserved point away to Leicester. Skinner was delighted with the performance on Sunday and believes her side probably deserved more from the game.

“I think we’ve dominated the game from start to finish, we’ve created five clear cut chances, defended resolutely, worked really hard and put bodies on the line,” she told WHUFC.com. “Overall, we’ve shown a real character and strength to end up coming from behind, and there’s loads of positives we can take from doing so.”

Despite testing the Foxes’ keeper, the Irons found themselves a goal down in the 68th minute, and things only got worse when Cissoko was sent off in the 95th minute. Fortunately, their hard work paid off as Hayashi put the ball in the back of the net to put the Hammers level on the 98th minute mark. The gaffer claims she was always confident that they would find the goal today. 

“There’s definitely been times where I’ve been stood on the sidelines in games and thought that it doesn’t matter how long we’re playing today that we might not get a goal – but today I didn’t feel like that.”

“I genuinely felt like the momentum was in our favour and that it was only going to be a matter of time before we got back into the game. So, I was delighted that we got the goal and the point on the road, which is really important to us, but I’m also disappointed not to get all three based on the run of the game to be honest.”

“It was a really hard working and solid effort that was full of character and resilience from the team. We made some good decisions in terms of game management today – better than we have in other games this season. We’re learning with every game, and the team has moved tremendously since the start of the season to now, so that’s something to look forward to for the second half of the season.”

“Our performances this season for the most part have been good. They haven’t been 90-minute performances,” she confessed, “but they’ve been improving as we’ve moved through this season. The way that we’re going is positive, we know that we’ve got the foundations in place and that we need to pick up more points.”

“We’re not happy with how many we’ve picked up in the first half of the season, but the way that we’re progressing is important, and it will definitely put us in good stead for the second half of the season.”

A point means that our Irons move above Bristol City on goal difference and, therefore, out of the relegation zone. If the last two games are anything to go by, this side certainly has the quality to turn things around. The chances they have been creating over 90 minutes are more than enough to pick up points, they just need to finish them off if they are to continue moving up the table.