Centre-back Renee Hector says Spurs Ladies’ defenders are just as committed to improving the team’s goal difference as the Lilywhites’ free-scoring attacking players after Sunday’s 4-0 league win over C&K Basildon.

Tottenham have been in remarkable form this season, winning 10 of their 11 games in all competitions and drawing the other – and they have scored 59 goals while conceding just five.

Ronnell Humes, Wendy Martin and Bianca Baptiste fired Spurs into a 3-0 lead in their return to league action against Basildon at the weekend, but Hector and skipper Jenna Schillaci refused to relax at the back and defended bravely to keep out Sara Sinclair’s close-range attempt before Cheryl Williams made it 4-0 to the Lilywhites.

It leaves Karen Hills’ side in a three-way tie at the top of the Women’s Premier League Southern Division, with leaders Coventry City, second-placed Spurs and Cardiff City only being separated by goal difference – and Hector knows every strike at either end of the pitch could be crucial.

“You never want to concede a goal,” she said. “When you’re winning a game it’s easy to become complacent – especially when you’re winning by the goal margin that we were.

“We wanted to come away with the clean sheet because we want to help our goal difference as much as we can. When the opposition are in front of goal you have to put your body on the line. That’s what we did and it was really satisfying.

“We’ve got to put the hard work in at the back to make sure we don’t concede at the other end and do what we can to supply the forwards with the chances to score. It’s a team game – it’s not about who’s getting recognition or things like that, and if we can help like we did on Sunday then that’s great.

“It’s all about maintaining that winning streak. From start to finish I thought we were absolutely quality. I thought all 11, and the three players that came on, set out what we were supposed to do.

“We stopped their strengths, which was to play directly to the forward and play in behind. We dealt with that well and we defended our set pieces a lot better this time.

“We were clinical in front of goal with the chances that we did have. We could have had a couple more, but it’s a quality result. It was a tough game away from home, I felt we followed our game plan through superbly and we’ve come away with the three points.”