Interview

Renee reacts to north London derby delight

Saturday's north London derby got off to the perfect start for us at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Alessia Russo picked out the bottom right corner just two minutes into the match before we went on to win 3-0 against our local rivals.

"It was a great start, it's a fantastic goal by Alessia," Renee Slegers said afterwards. "She takes it first time with her left foot, so that was a great start and then again Daphne makes a really important save early in the game as well, so a good start for us, so two decisive actions I think which helps us settle in the game."

Mariona Caldentey provided two clever assists - one for Russo and one for second-half subtitute Stina Blackstenius - and continues to contribute to our attack since her arrival in the summer.

"Yeah she's a brilliant player," Renee added. "She's so versatile, she has so many tools that she can use, she's an assisting player, she's a scoring player, she's a pressing player, she's most of it, so she's a very good player for us. I'm very happy she's with us."

It looked like a controlled, composed clinical performance from almost the first minute to the last.

"I'm happy with the performance I think," Renee said. "We weren't sure how Tottenham was coming out, they decided to come out in the back five and then they changed their structure throughout the game so we had to adjust to that, but it also means that opponents feel like they need to change against us and to try to stop us, so I think we're really good at the moment.

"Again I think we look like a team both on and off the pitch, there's positivity around us, staff, players and I think everyone is creating this, so we're creating this together, today with the fans as well, so yeah just very happy with this and I'm very happy we got to this point and now the challenge is to stay here as well."

There was also a special mention for Kim Little and Leah Williamson, who both reached 150 Barclays Women's Super League appearances on the weekend.

"It takes a lot of games, you have to perform really well and be very professional over a long time consistently and that's I think what Leah and Kim are very good examples of," Renee said.

"We try to stay in the moment and focus on our momentum that we have going on. I know the players have been talking about last year where we didn't win the north London derby, so it was probably a little bit of extra fuel for the players, so yeah very happy that we got the result today."