Olli Harder admitted that his West Ham United team were the architects of their own downfall in Sunday’s 3-0 Barclays FA Women’s Super League defeat to Leicester City.
Two goals in the opening nine minutes, courtesy of Natasha Flint and Ashleigh Plumptre, put the Hammers in a difficult position early on at the Pirelli Stadium, with Freya Gregory adding a third just five minutes into the second half.
Assessing his side’s performance, Harder said told whufc.com “It was underwhelming. It was really, really disappointing with our start. Too many players were not switched-on early doors, which takes the game to 2-0. From there it becomes a complicated afternoon.
“When you go down two goals so early in the game, it puts the hard work from throughout the season out of the window.
“We’ve put in so much work to put ourselves in such a good position and we’ve put in so much work to be a team in the top half, when it comes to our defensive record, so to give away three goals – and two goals in nine minutes – is tough to take.”
We’re the makers of our own demise today. Credit to our opponents because they did play with some directness in spells, but we shot ourselves in the foot.
Olli Harder
Strong winds and a heavily used pitch made conditions far from ideal for both teams in Sunday’s match but Harder refused to put the side’s efforts down to variables out of their control, saying that the result came from avoidable errors.
He continued: “I think there’s a case of putting yourself in better positions from the very beginning because otherwise everything becomes more stressful and more complicated. I certainly don’t feel we played particularly well.
“We tried to adapt a bit to the conditions but, at the end of the day, the goals were poor. The third goal was poor from us. We’re the makers of our own demise today. Credit to our opponents because they did play with some directness in spells, but we shot ourselves in the foot.
“Quality was missing in all areas. You can talk about moments of quality from a defensive aspect, and you can also talk about it in the middle of the pitch and up front. We barely registered any form of meaningful attack in the first half, made some changes at half-time, and became a bit more dangerous in the second half.
“But, overall, it was a really tough afternoon and it’s really disappointing that we couldn’t put together a performance to stay where we’ve been in the table.”
Women’s football now enters an international break before the Hammers return to action at the end of February in the FA Cup, with a trip to Reading.
Harder notes that preparation for the next match will be tricky, given how many players will be away for international football, but says the hard work on the training pitches must continue in order to put things right in the next match.
Harder added: “It’s a long time until our next game, against Reading in the FA Cup, so it’s complicated from a preparation standpoint. We’ve got players away on international duty, so we won’t have the full squad together until the day before that game.
“It’s going to be a case of working together individually to make sure we can all be more accountable for what happens out there on the pitch.”