Spurs earned first ever away win in WSL 2 by beating London Bees on Sunday

Centre-back Renee Hector says Spurs Ladies proved to their rivals, but more importantly to themselves, that they can compete in the Women’s Super League 2.

Wendy Martin struck twice inside seven first-half minutes against London Bees and despite Jo Wilson pulling one back just before the break, Karen Hills’ side showed resiliency to pick up their first-ever three points on the road in the WSL 2.

And Hector believes Spurs’ hard work paid dividends in taking the bragging rights against their local rivals.

“It’s a confidence boost,” said the defender. “I think now we’ve proved to not only everybody else in the league, but also to ourselves that we can be competitive in this league.

“I’m sure coming up from the league below people probably didn’t realise or know what to expect from us, but we’ve come out the blocks flying and hopefully we can continue that going forward.”

Hector also had high praise for The Lilywhites’ rearguard, alluding to their mental toughness as being a beneficial factor, which has been helped with having ‘complete faith’ in each other.

And believes their collective psychology will only improve and place them in a position to come out on top in games at the highest level.

She added: “As a unit we’re really strong, we’ve all got a great connection and we play well with each other.

“All of us work really hard - that’s the key to be honest - we’ll give everything.

“Even if we don’t have the best game, we know that we’ve left that pitch giving everything that we possibly can to try and stop the ball from going in the back of the net.”

Tottenham begin their FAWSL Continental Tyres Cup campaign when top-flight Bristol City arrive at Cheshunt FC on Thursday evening and Hector, reminiscing on last year’s quadruple season, says the squad have high hopes to sustain the winning feeling.

“We showed last year that we overcame obstacles and challenges people probably didn’t think we would, in the FA Cup getting down to the last 16, so we want to do that again,” she added.