FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division title ‘fully deserved’

Eartha Pond says winning the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division on the Club’s main stage is nothing less than what Spurs Ladies deserve after doing the ‘simple things well’.

The Lilywhites took to White Hart Lane for the first time in the league against rivals West Ham United, knowing nothing but a win would see them to the crown.

Goals from Josie Green, Wendy Martin, Nikita Whinnett and Bianca Baptiste ensured a scintillating 4-0 victory in front of a 2,140 crowd and Pond revealed the squad is already eyeing more silverware.

“It’s an absolute pleasure. The staff, the girls – everyone has worked so hard for this,” said Pond.

“It’s a massive achievement, but the important thing is the journey doesn’t stop. We’ve got goals for the remainder of the season, we’ve got to keep the momentum going and hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing every single week.

“Keep pressing, keep scoring goals and the outcomes will come.

“It’s imperative. If you’ve got that attitude then the rest follows – talent, passion, then everything will fall into place. Make sure you don’t concede, stick to the game plan and results will follow.

“It’s absolutely fantastic, especially for the young players. People like me and Karen (Hills, Manager), we’ve had opportunities to play at big grounds such as this.

“If you had said to us last season that we’re going to win the league at White Hart Lane, have the opportunity and go unbeaten in the league, be available to win an array of cups – we would have taken it with both hands!

“Every single week we just look at what is ahead of us. We got the job done, we won’t be looking too far ahead and that’s exactly what we did.

“We had a game plan, we set out to get the three points, put on a solid performance, clean sheet and we managed to achieve our goals.”

Every goal scored was celebrated with the coaching staff submerged by all the players, which Pond says was a way of giving back to a group of people who have moulded a champion mindset at the club.

“That shows the passion, the determination that we’ve had as a squad,” she added. “Not just at the start of the season, that started from pre-season and then we hit the ground running.

“It’s that never-say-die attitude, we keep going as a team, we do it together – there’s no individuals and I think that’s what’s key.

“We’ve had some great additions in the summer and we’ve almost kind of said to ourselves ‘this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to work hard and then see where it gets us’.

“It comes with experience. When we played at West Ham (Upton Park, last season) it was new for a lot of people, but the key thing about it was we learnt from it and that showed.

“We haven’t made the same mistake, we enjoyed the moment, we made sure we just kept our game to exactly how we’d do at Cheshunt and do the things that we do well all of the time.

“We have to say thank you to the backroom staff, to all the coaches who prepare us properly so when the fans do get down here, we can put on a good show and show them actually this is what you want to see every single week.

“It’s a massive, massive achievement for the club to be able to accomplish getting that amount of people here, midweek on a school night and it just shows how far the club has come.”

Hills’ team still have games with huge implications to play, starting on Sunday with Charlton, who they face in the Capital Women’s Cup Final just two days later, and Pond added the thought process is just more of the same.

“It’s a massive milestone for the club – for the women’s team it’s the first time playing at White Hart Lane. It’s a massive achievement and it’s credit to the staff, everyone that’s been involved with the club for a very, very long time, as these things don’t happen every single day.

“We’ll go again Sunday, we’ll prepare well, make sure we hydrate, eat well and then obviously go for the three points again.”