Tottenham manager Rehanne Skinner was still proud of her sides’ cup run despite a 3-0 semi-final defeat to Manchester City in the FA Women's Continental Tyres League Cup on Thursday night.
Spurs were aiming to lift a major cup for the first time in their history, but were convincingly beaten by three-time winners City after goals from Jess Park, Bunny Shaw and Lauren Hemp.
Even though her side never really looked like going on to face London rivals Chelsea in the final, Skinner maintained that reaching the final four was a significant step forward for the club.
“It has been a massive positive to get to the semi-final of this competition,” she said. “It is something that the club has not achieved before, the players have worked extremely hard to get to this point.
“It’s been a huge learning curve for us, and it presents chances to rectify and change one or two things going into our forthcoming Super League games.
“The biggest focus for us will always be the (Barclays FA Women’s) Super League, but this cup run has been a massive bonus for us.”
Although City never looked like throwing away a two-goal advantage once in front, Spurs did have a big chance at 0-0 when Jessica Naz fired just wide.
And Skinner believed that could have been the turning point in the tie, with Gareth Taylor’s team punishing the visitors just minutes later.
Skinner added: “I thought the game went well for us early on.
“We managed the possession City had quite well and it looked promising in the early stages.
“There were just a couple of moments where we gave City too much room, though. We had a great breakaway opportunity early in the game.
“Jess did so well to create the opportunity, but she didn’t quite get the finishing touch right.
“It might have different had that one gone in – it might have changed the momentum of the game and the mind-set of the players.”
To follow the action and sign up for The FA Player’s live Barclays FA Women’s Super League coverage visit womenscompetitions.thefa.com
