West Ham United attacker Adriana Leon has called on her teammates to look only forwards for the rest of the season.
The 27-year-old was making her first appearance in Claret and Blue since returning from Canada’s successful CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying campaign in Sunday’s 4-2 win against Liverpool, opening the scoring with a superb goal before poaching a second later on.
The Hammers went into Sunday’s game at Rush Green Stadium seeking their first Barclays FA Women's Super League win in four matches, but turned on the style midway through the first half and rarely looked back from there.
Leon’s goals came either side of strike partner Martha Thomas’ brace on Sunday, and despite Rachel Furness netting twice for the visitors late on, the score-line rewarded West Ham’s strong, clinical showing.
As a result, the Canada international hopes her teammates will put their recent troubles behind them and use the game as a springboard for the rest of the season.
“It was really good to get the win and the three points. I’ve been away for a while so it’s nice to come back, put some goals in the net and get the win,” Leon told West Ham TV.
“The first one I was on sort of a breakaway on the left side and I cut in and decided to shoot. The second one was a cross from Martha and I got in front of my defender and just one-timed it in – it was good.
“It was important for us to get the win and restart and reset a bit. We’ll look to get as many wins as we can moving forward. We’ll put the past few games in the past, forget about them and just move forwards from here.”
A slow opening to the first half saw both teams struggle to retain possession in blustery conditions, but once Leon put West Ham ahead after 25 minutes played, the Irons rarely looked back.
The emphatic win also came in manager Matt Beard’s 50th game in charge of the Club, with West Ham scoring the most goals they've netted in a home Women's Super League match - a fitting result to mark the occasion against his former side.
There’s still things we need to work on, there’s cleaning up in front of the goal, but we did a good job with the four and we’ll start with that
Adriana Leon
Nevertheless, the Hammers' two late concessions both originated from set pieces – a free-kick and a corner kick respectively – and Leon admitted her team know there is work still to be done to ensure Sunday’s result becomes habitual.
“I think we showed what we can do out there. We could have had more than four goals today,” she observed. "There’s still things we need to work on, there’s cleaning up in front of the goal, but we did a good job with the four and we’ll start with that.
“For him [Matt Beard] he was probably just focusing on getting the win and getting the three points, especially with the last few games we’ve had. I’m sure he’s thrilled with it and it’s nice that we got him the win.
“Going forward we’ll look to be more consistent and put out more performances like that.”
Following the upcoming international break, West Ham United return to Barclays FA Women's Super League action away to Manchester United on Sunday 22 March, with kick-off at Leigh Sports Village at 12noon.
