The Fosse Way

A lot had changed for both teams since Leicester played at West Ham in November. Rehanne Skinner, Rick Passmoor’s former boss, was sacked by our opponents. They brought in a few new signings, and they would have been hoping to make this their first away game to finish as anything other than a loss this season. Leicester, on the other hand, were looking at this as an opportunity to get a good three points on the board for their long-suffering home fans with two new additions to the squad. 

It all ended in a surprise 2-1 win for West Ham, with Shekeira Martinez looking dangerous and scoring one of West Ham’s goals. Leicester’s consolation goal was an own goal, but it was close enough to a debut strike for Alisha Lehmann, whose run forced Eva Nystrom to turn the ball into her own net.

Forward Rachel Williams came in from Manchester United, a former Leicester player as far back as 2008, to beef up the front line. On our Instagram account, the announcement of her signing got 15,000 views. The five videos of new signing Alisha Lehmann got a combined 8 million likes. This has brought some new followers for Leicester’s social media accounts, and it’s also resulted in a whole load of thirsty, weird and downright misogynistic comments on our posts that feature Lehmann.

We need as many people as possible who can score goals in this team. Lehmann was good at Aston Villa a few years ago and has a proven WSL record, but she’s not coming off the best time in Italy. She certainly has something to prove as a footballer, and if she can score a few goals for us, that’s great, but it’s debatable how much the attention she comes with will actually benefit the club.

As for the game itself, Leicester set up to win, playing with a back 5 with the wing backs up high and an exciting-looking front four of Sarah Mayling, Hannah Cain, Shannon O’Brien and Williams. There were five new signings in the starting 11, with four of them coming in this transfer window. Things are changing at Leicester, and it will be interesting to see where things go. 

The first half hour was pretty cagey, with both sides bedding in new signings, and there would have been a good amount of nerves for each team as they both knew this was a rare chance for points. 

Around half an hour in, Ashleigh Neville played a cross into the box that almost sneaked in at the near post following a throw-in, and that was the first time either keeper was really put under pressure. From that point, it felt like the tempo of the game was raised.

West Ham found themselves with a good break against the run of play, and Emma Jansson dealt with it well, but Chantelle Swaby gave away a free kick in the build-up and got herself a yellow card in the process. It was in a good position, just outside of the box, and Verena Hanshaw whipped it in pretty easily. Olivia Clark is our second-choice keeper, and that will always bring comparisons, but I cannot escape the feeling that Janina Leitizig would have dealt with it better. 

Just before half-time, Swaby dealt well with a long ball to Martinez, but the sight of her budging an attacker off the ball was a sharp reminder of that yellow card. Jansson also came off injured before the break and was replaced by Sari Kees. It didn’t feel like this was going to plan, but I chose to believe in Passmoor.

The second half started out a little more frenzied than the first ended. Goals don’t come easily for us, and we were clearly trying to give ourselves enough time to get one. We got on the front foot and stayed on it; it was good to see, but we conceded the first goal against the run of play, and the run of play does not win you games. 

West Ham were still active participants and had a few chances on the break, but this was very much a home team looking for an equaliser, and the pressure was real. The back three had pushed up high, and every clearance by West Ham was recycled calmly by Asmita Ale or Swaby, and Williams led the line well. She is a proper focal point that this team has been sorely missing for a long time, but the danger of a quick breakaway was always there.

And that’s exactly what happened in the 62nd minute. Martinez smashed the ball towards the top right corner, and this time Clark had no chance. This called for something big, and if Alisha Lehmann is anything, she is big news. Asking her to create or score two goals in her first WSL game is a huge ask, but it would certainly put the focus back on her football. 

With 15 minutes remaining, it already felt hopeless. Mayling put in a couple of big rough tackles, but it felt like a clear manifestation of the whole team’s frustrations. Williams came off after a good, battling debut and was replaced by Noemie Mouchon. Ale also came off for Emily van Egmond, a defender replaced by an attacker, so Passmoor was trying everything to get something out of this game. 

Mouchon crossed the ball into Lehmann, who made a nice run between two defenders, leading to a Nystrom own goal and finally a bit of pay off for our attacking dominance. It wasn’t quite a goal for Lehmann, but her movement certainly made it happen. In the following minutes, it felt like the momentum was with us and an equaliser was very possible, but Clark topped off an iffy performance by letting the ball run out for a corner. The resulting corner wasn’t up to much, but it did tip everything into West Ham’s favour for the next few minutes, and other than a good effort from Olivia McLoughlin in the dying seconds of the game, we offered nothing that looked anything like an equaliser.

West Ham looked sharper in one-on-ones, quicker to second balls and had a little bit of invention when going forward. They were fully deserving of their win and frankly, made us look a bit toothless going forward. We desperately need Leitzig to come back into the side to help us shore up the defence again so we can have some sort of platform to maybe score one or two goals one day.