West Ham United Ladies manager Greg De Carnys believes his team has learned from the loss to Chichester City two weeks ago as they prepare to take on the side again on Sunday.
The Ladies suffered a 4-1 defeat to Chichester a fortnight ago in the FAWPL Cup, eliminating the Irons from the competition at the first hurdle.
West Ham will return to Oaklands Park this weekend seeking a return to winning form and revenge for that loss, and De Carnys says his side is ready for how Chichester will approach this league encounter.
We've learned some lessons from when we played them a couple of weeks back. It was a physical game and we have to be ready for that again.
Greg De Carnys
“We’ve already played Chichester in the cup so we’re going to be ready,” De Carnys told whufc.com. “We’ve learned some lessons from when we played them a couple of weeks back.
“It was a physical game, and we have to be ready for that again. We have to be able to match that and we’re going to show that in our game. They’re going to make it tough for us and we have to be prepared.”
In between the two matches with Chichester the West Ham Ladies also suffered a disappointing loss to C&K Basildon but De Carnys has been happy with how his squad has responded in training.
The first team manager believes these defeats can be used as a force for positivity and serve as a way of bringing more out of the players, both individually and as a unit.
He added: “The team has responded really well considering how the last two weeks have gone. We’ve tried to approach training with a positive mind-set and use the losses as a way to make us stronger as a group. I think the girls have brought into that. They always train hard but right now there’s an extra determination in the group.”
Despite the losses there has been a marked improvement in performances by the Ladies and De Carnys reckons this will eventually lead to regular positive results.
“Good performances will eventually breed good results,” he explained. “The Cardiff win was a lovely feeling for everyone involved. It has given us the taste for it and it’s something we want to experience more. But you only get to that through focusing on performance.
“To win our first home game with eight players in the team that played for us last season, when we didn’t win a game at all, shows the massive improvement we made. We realise the challenges we have to face but hopefully our good performances will turn into good results more often than not.”