Martin Ho arrived on pitch side in a subdued manner following his Tottenham Hotspur Women’s side penalty shootout defeat against West Ham in the Subway Players Cup.
Following the high of their 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, Spurs looked a shadow of themselves back on home soil and never really got going.
West Ham United Women dominated proceedings and had enough chances to win the tie in the ninety, but Spurs also had some chances of their own late on and will be kicking themselves for failing to capitalise and take maximum points on match day one of the revamped Swiss-style league format.
In the build-up to the tie, Ho asked for the same ‘expectation and demand’ from Sunday’s win at Palace, but it was easier said than done. Spurs’ Head Coach put that lack of demand down to the nine changes he made for the League Cup tie, but didn’t want to take that away from the fact that his side could have done better.
“Yeah, probably the connections, relationships of players and understanding of players around one another, and we just didn’t get to a level we expected. When you make the changes, that probably does that. You probably lack a little bit of rhythm and understanding. We need to make sure that even when we do make changes that the expectation, the level, the intensity, the quality still needs to be there.
“And I think we had some flashes of in the first 50-60 minutes. We didn’t have enough real, clear-cut chances. And then the last half-hour, 25 minutes, I thought we were pushing and we created, and we got into good areas and if you are in those moments, you have to be ruthless and we weren’t.”
Spurs made to rue missed chances
The hosts had a number of opportunities to take the game away from The Hammers in the final stages of Wednesday’s match, but failed to find the back of the net.
Shekeira Martinez hit the post with the goal gaping from just five yards out after Ella Morris’ timely cross, before substitute Matilda Vinberg saw an effort blocked in the dying seconds of the game.
No repeat of the Selhurst Park rout
On Sunday at Palace, Spurs scored a staggering seven in the second half to complete a demolition rout, but at home against West Ham, they lacked cutting edge in the final third.
Ho was quick to dismiss the chances of Spurs scoring seven in one half again, like the win at Selhurst Park, but was visibly frustrated throughout the ninety minutes at his side’s inability to make the net bulge.
“Yeah, and that’ll happen. We’re not going to score seven goals every week. There’s no way. It won’t happen, it won’t happen again unless we’re that ruthless and everything we hit, like on Sunday, went in against Crystal Palace. And they were down to ten, so I’d expect us to score that many goals when we’ve got an extra player.
“I think today we didn’t have that edge in front of goal and we just need to look at it, review it, reflect on it, and make sure we’re ready again to go again on Sunday.”
Unbeaten start, rebuild continues
Spurs have enjoyed a terrific, unbeaten start to the 2026/27 campaign, and will have plenty of positives to take from the opening few weeks, but Wednesday’s penalty defeat will be a reminder that they are far from where they envisage to be, as the rebuild continues.
Ho will be hoping that his side get back to their free-flowing attacking ways, which had seen them previously score thirteen goals in their opening four Women’s Super League matches, when they welcome Aston Villa to Brisbane Road on Sunday afternoon.