West Ham Ladies focusing on next season after Brighton defeat

Defeat at the hands of Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend ended West Ham Ladies’ bid for promotion out of the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division.

The 3-2 loss on the South coast unextended the Ladies’ winless streak to five games and left the Hammers 15 points away from league leaders Millwall Lionesses with only four games of the season left to play.

Speaking exclusively to Blowing Bubbles, captain Rosey Sullivan said there haven’t been many positives to take out of their recent run of games because the Ladies all prefer to be winning games.

Mikey Cartwright/Ponderosa Pix

But she added: “A positive could be that we have stuck as a team and have recognised what is happening to cause the results we have been getting.

“As a team we have spoken about our performance in front of goal because collectively we do not shoot enough. We also need more from our strikers. We can't win games if we are always defending and we need more goals.”

Asked if the Hammers have been unlucky not to win any of their last five games, the centre half continued: “I think we should have won them all. We certainly had opportunities but we just didn’t take them.

“Against QPR we did not play as a team and it was the worst team performance we have had.”

On Sunday, the Hammers travel to Colchester, who are sitting comfortably mid-table, for their next league clash.

Rosey continued: “We want to win all our games and we will continue to treat every game the same but as we are not favourites for promotion, the pressure has been taken off us.

“This should allow us to enjoy our football more and play with more freedom.”

She added: “We are now looking towards next season and we are focused on getting promotion next season. We are working hard to identify what has gone wrong this season and we want to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

The Ladies next home game is against Yeovil Town on April 28. It’s a 2pm kick off at Thurrock FC.

The second trial for the West Ham Ladies Academy will also be taking place on Wednesday May 29 from 3 to 5 pm and will be held at the West Ham Community Trust, Beckton.

Any current year 11 females interested in combining a college education with the professional football training lifestyle should register for the trial on www.scl-online.co.uk.