Grace Fisk is adamant that West Ham United Women’s FA Cup fifth round defeat to Aston Villa will not define the team’s season.
After a 1-1 draw in normal time, when former Hammer Rachel Daly's goal was cancelled out by a late Dagný Brynjarsdóttir finish, and a tense period of extra time, penalties were required to settle the tie at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
The shootout went to sudden-death after Fisk and Jordan Nobbs had missed their spot-kicks. Aston Villa goalkeeper Hannah Hampton had blasted her effort into the back of the net, but Mackenzie Arnold stepped up to face her opposite number and fired over the crossbar.
It was a tough way for the Hammers to exit the competition after such a valiant performance, but Fisk believes there are positives that the team can take heading into the final few months of Barclays Women’s Super League action.
“We’re really disappointed to be out of the FA Cup because we know what a fantastic competition it is,” the defender told whufc.com. “We showed good spirt to fight back and get ourselves back into it and force the game to extra time.
"For spells they were better than us, but we also had large periods where we had chances to go and win the game, especially heading into extra time when the momentum was with us.
“It was even match and there was a lot on the line. It’s just unfortunate that we weren’t the ones to come out on top and progress in the end.
“We had chances, it definitely wasn’t all one-way traffic. But perhaps we need to be more clinical, to get ourselves into goalscoring opportunities more often we do have the ball.
“They had chances as well, and we had to defend well at times. It’s really disappointing to be out, but we have the league to focus on, and we want to do as well as we can as we head towards the backend of the season.”
Defeat to Villa was the Hammers' first match after the February international break, where 12 players jetted off across the globe to represent their respective countries.
The likes of Risa Shimizu and Honoka Hayashi played in the United States in the SheBelieves Cup with Japan, whilst Mackenzie Arnold flew back to Australia for their matches in the Cup of Nations.
“It’s tough when you’re coming back from an international break," Fisk admitted. “You’ve got players like Risa and Hono who are jetlagged after playing matches out in the USA. They didn’t fly back until Friday.
“It’s the same for most teams in this league now, because everyone has players playing at the highest level.
“We’re all really proud of the effort that we put in today and all of us wouldn’t want to be anywhere else other than giving our all for this team – we’re disappointed, but proud of each other and we want to push on now and get back to winning ways.”
Fisk, alongside Arnold, both missed her penalty in the shootout. The centre-back's effort struck the post and bounced into the path of grateful Villa goalkeeper Hampton.
While the No22 was confident in her own abilities, Fisk says the team must now turn their full attention onto the remaining Barclays WSL campaign, as they seek to add more points and climb up the table.
“Me and Macca both missed our penalties. I was really confident when I stepped up and thought I was going to bury it, but it hit the inside of the post and bounced out.
“Macca stepped up and unfortunately she didn’t hit the target. We have to move on now, a result like this isn’t going to define our season and we mustn’t dwell on it. We’ve got lots of games still to come in the league and that will have our full focus now," Fisk concluded.
