Gilly Flaherty believes West Ham got their pre-season off to a ‘positive start’ with a 1-1 draw against London Bees on Sunday.
The Irons first match of the 2018/19 campaign ended level with Leanne Kiernan netting for Matt Beard’s side, after Taylor O’Leary put the Bees in front.
Flaherty reckons these pre-season games will prove vital for West Ham as they head into their first season in the Women’s Super League, and is happy with how the showing went for her side.
We can be happy with how this match went. We have this performance as our base to build on for the rest of pre-season.
Gilly Flaherty
“This game was a positive start for us.” Flaherty told whufc.com. “There’s only so much you can do on a training pitch. You need to play in these sorts of games to further develop ideas and to see where mistakes might happen.
“Overall, I think the game went as well as we could have hoped for. It was our first match together as a team. We’ve got a lot of new signings in the side and half of us haven’t played in a match with each other before.
“With all that in mind, we can be happy with how this match went. We have this performance as our base to build on for the rest of pre-season.”
The 26-year-old was handed the captaincy armband for Sunday’s friendly but, while Flaherty was thrilled to lead the team out at The Hive, the defender feels the experience of the entire team will prove crucial for the coming campaign.
Flaherty continued: “Of course, it was an honour for me to be captain of West Ham for this game.
“However, we’ve got a team filled with experience. Every player needs to be a captain. We’ve got 16 or 17 leaders in this team and we all need to be captains throughout the season. Everyone needs to step up to that responsibility in their own way.”
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