- West Ham United Ladies beat Enfield Town in the Ryman Cup on Wednesday
- The side were 2-0 winners at Thurrock FC
- Chloe Burr grabbed both the Hammers’ goals
*Report supplied by Robert Wheeler
West Ham United Ladies emulated their male counterparts by scoring a morale-boosting midweek victory.
While Slaven Bilic’s side were defeating Burnley in the Premier League at London Stadium, Greg de Carnys’s team were overcoming Enfield Town Ladies in the Ryman Cup at Thurrock FC.
From the first whistle, West Ham were the dominant side, with Chloe Burr and Dayna Chong both putting dangerous balls into the Enfield box, but the visitors initially held firm.
Whitney Locke did some fine work down the left-hand side and her industry won the corner which led to the Hammers’ first shot on target – a long-range Chong volley which was stopped by Enfield goalkeeper Victoria Caldwell.
Caldwell was called into action by Julie Melfald a short time later, before Chong fired another decent chance over the crossbar.
The opening goal finally came as Burr was allowed space in the Enfield box and smashed the ball into the bottom corner to give West Ham the lead in the 38th minute.
West Ham continued to dominate proceedings in the second half, with Megan Waters coming close with a shot from outside the box. Goalscorer Burr then cut in from the left and tested Caldwell, who was equal to her effort.
Enfield threatened sporadically, but two direct free-kicks did produce a fine stop from West Ham’s new goalkeeper Latoya Smith to keep her side in the lead.
Burr, Melfald and Whitney all missed opportunities in an eventful second 45 minutes, before the former sealed the Hammers’ progress with a shot that went in via the underside of the crossbar.
Just as they did at London Stadium, the players celebrations were a mixture of joy and relief as West Ham scored their first victory in six matches.
Manager De Carnys was proud of his team’s display, saying: “I think the performance was what we are looking for, it was progress, in terms of the way we’re trying to play.
“It is not just as simple as passing the ball – there is a lot of thinking going on and a lot of work that they are doing in training in terms of working out the problems and trying to get better at playing in that way, so it’s a credit to them.
“We are getting better at it week on week and there were times on Wednesday when it looked really good.
“Obviously I’m pleased for the girls that they got through to the next round of the cup. That’s a nice feeling for them.
“We keep telling them to focus on the performance, because the better the performance, the more likely we are to get a positive result.
“The girls have enjoyed themselves, they’ve all got smiles on their faces and that is what football is all about.”
West Ham face Tottenham Hotspur Ladies in the semi-finals, and De Carnys knows his players will face a tough task in overcoming their local rivals to reach the final.
“We’ll take each game is it comes!” he said. “What’s important to the staff and the players and myself is that our performances get better week-in week-out.
“We’ll take every game as an opportunity to challenge ourselves an opportunity to improve and hopefully that will mean that we can progress further in the tournament.”