![\"Something](\"https:\/\/platform.cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2025\/10\/IMG_0261.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0.072689511941846,0,99.854620976116,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSomething like this.<\/p>\n
Spurs started brightly, opening the attacking with a number of chances on goal in the opening stages, though (as I\u2019ve gotten in the habit of saying after a few years) none found the back of the net. Tinka Tandberg struck in the 15th minute with a really scrappy toe-poke of an effort after Jess Naz\u2019s deflected cross fell to her. I personally thought Tinka had taken too many touches once it fell to her, but she surprised me and apparently also the entire Leicester defense. Olivia Holdt added a second at 21\u2019 after Eveliina\u2019s pinpoint pass split Leicester up the middle. Olivia\u2019s lovely effort came in a somewhat more joyous game state than her earlier goal against Manchester City.<\/p>\n
Leicester pulled one back before the half after our defenders stormed to close down a run into the box and left Tierney open in front of the net. A case of our old box-defending demons coming home to roost yet again, perhaps, though I\u2019d argue there was a foul on Tinka Tandberg in the build up that didn\u2019t get called.<\/p>\n
Olivia\u2026 yes. WSL Football via Getty Images<\/p>\n In the second half, Ho continued his habit of extensive rotation. We saw Olga Ahtinen come in for Drew Spence at halftime, and Anaya Dennis replaced Jess Naz at around the 60th minute. In the 65th minute, Martin hit us with a bit of old school Spurs nostalgia by bringing on Kit Graham and the long awaited Ashleigh Neville for Beth England and Josephine Rybrink. We also saw Martha Thomas finish out the closing stages of the game in place of the excellent Olivia Holdt.<\/p>\n Spurs control on the game slipped somewhat throughout the half, and towards the end, Leicester were really turning up the dial. However, they weren\u2019t able to capitalize on any of that, and the game ended all square.<\/p>\n First things first, wow, look at Olivia Holdt go! This is much closer to the player I hoped we were signing back in January. She\u2019s carrying the ball, she\u2019s getting her head up, she\u2019s picking out passes, and she\u2019s scoring clever goals! What more could you want? I would love to see Olivia continue to thrive like this under Martin Ho.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a moment to talk about Ash Neville\u2019s return. Ash has been sidelined with an unspecified injury for most of preseason and the first few games of the season. The team and style of play have changed a lot in that time, so it\u2019s not too surprising she looked a little bit off the pace. I was thrilled to see her getting in at least few Ash Neville classics \u2014 well-timed tackles, and some interplay with Amaya Dennis and the midfielders. Hopefully this is just the first step into Ash getting back into the swing of things.<\/p>\n Welcome back, Ash. NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n I still have concerns about our depth options. We obviously saw this against Manchester City, but we saw it in a smaller way against Leicester City. Our attack isn\u2019t the most dangerous as it is, but we see a huge drop off in threat when key figures like Olivia, Beth and Matilda aren\u2019t on the pitch. Elsewhere, our passing and organization seem to struggle the more subs Martin makes. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I think subs are great, I think rotation is phenomenal. I also think this it\u2019s important for Martin to do now so he has a real sense of who\u2019s in this squad and what they can do. I assume he\u2019ll have some challenging decisions to make in future transfer windows.<\/p>\n Anyway, life is pretty good, huh? I obviously have questions about this side \u2014 top of the list are whether the attack has enough quality to consistently score goals, and whether the full team has enough quality to compete with anyone other than the midtable. But I was reassured by this game, I really was. We\u2019ve struggled against Leicester in years past and dropped points to them when they were a much weaker team. If Martin Ho has the team consistently managing routine wins against comparable and inferior sides, I\u2019ll take that.<\/p>\n Martin Ho, I have to tell you I\u2019ve been hurt before, but I\u2019m impressed so far. WSL Football via Getty Images<\/p>\n Of course, I do feel a bit like I\u2019m drawing on clown makeup every time I say something like this. I remember saying it about Robert Vilahamn, and I remember saying it about Rehanne Skinner before him. We\u2019ve had a long history of coaches start strong and taper off, and I\u2019m wary of going early on yet another manager, even if he does come with a more impressive pedigree and seemingly has turned around a bunch of players\u2019 passing games overnight. And the signs are promising all around \u2014 judging by the club\u2019s recent announcements about additions to the coaching staff (here<\/a>, and here<\/a>), it sounds like there\u2019s a lot of structure being put into place behind the scenes. That should make things more stable season to season.<\/p>\n Spurs face off against Brighton on Sunday. Brighton has had the next best start of any of the other midtable contenders (contenders for what? Don\u2019t worry about it). They sit two points behind us in the table (and also two places, because we are 4th ahead of Arsenal. Read that twice because you won\u2019t get that often!), though they suffered a somewhat less heavy defeat against Manchester City than we did.<\/p>\n Much like every other game against the perennial midtable sides shooting for progress, this will be a real test of the changes Martin\u2019s made at Spurs. I, for one, am still unreasonably excited to watch more Ho-ball and notice some new things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham Hotspur Women dispatched Leicester City away at King Power Stadium last Sunday. Thanks to first half goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,17291,60642,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-473379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tottenham-hotspur-match-reports","11":"tag-tottenham-hotspur-women","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115315535822155444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n