‘We are in a good place’ – West Ham ready for Brighton test says Skinner | OneFootball

West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner says that her side have prepared well ahead of this weekend’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Hammers play host to The Seagulls at The Chigwell Construction Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

West Ham United have started the second half of the season with six games in just 17 days. The workload has been heavy on the East Londoners but after having no game last weekend, manager Skinner says that her side are refreshed and ready for the challenge of Brighton & Hove Albion.

“We’ve had such a busy game period,” Skinner said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “The players gave it everything in that time and we’ve had some really positive results and some really good performances. It has given everybody a few days to re-energise [having a free weekend].

“Obviously, we would’ve liked to be playing in the FA Cup but the weekend off has come at a time where it has allowed us to prepare for this week. Training has been fantastic and you can tell that we just needed a little bit of breathing space. We are looking forward to this weekend.”

West Ham United went down 3-2 in the reverse fixture at the Amex Stadium back in November. The Hammers missed some gilt-edged chances in that match. Skinner believes that her side have improved at both ends of the pitch since that game.

She said “We all felt that it was an opportunity missed because we did create some really top chances and we were a bit disappointed with our defensive structure around some of their goals. We’ve been working really hard on both of those things and I think we are in a good place where that’s concerned.

“It’ll be a good test and I think it’ll be a good game. It’ll be a good one for the neutral based on how we both play. We are in a good place and we’ve rectified a few things in games recently where we made errors in that game [away at Brighton] which is going to help us.”

After back-to-back away fixtures, West Ham United will now play three of their next four games at home. Skinner is hoping that The Hammers can continue to make The Chigwell Construction Stadium a tough venue for opposing teams.

She said “We love being at home, the fans are superb, they just keep getting better and better and the crowds just keep improving as well. That’s a testament to the work that the club’s done to try to engage people to come to our games. It’s been a fantastic improvement this year on last year and it has made a difference on how we feel at home, it does feel like home this season.

“We’ve had some good results at home and we want to keep that going. We had a tough run on the road before Christmas with a lot of away games and now that we get chance to settle in, we want to make life as difficult as we possibly can for everyone at home.”

West Ham United’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets are on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.