Spurs boss Rehanne Skinner

ROSELLA Ayane admitted the Tottenham players were all “gutted” after succumbing to an injury-time equaliser against West Ham on Sunday in the FA Women’s Super League.

It all seemed to be going Spurs’ way at the Hive in Barnet when Hammers defender Hawa Cissoko was sent off after receiving two yellow cards – either side of conceding a penalty.

Striker Ayane made the 54th-minute spot-kick count, and with the visitors down to 10 players, Tottenham were very much on course for second place in the table.

But deep into stoppage time disaster struck when lifelong West Ham fan Kate Longhurst made it 1-1 with a looping header to deny Spurs a vital London derby victory.

Ayane, who was replaced in the 78th minute, said: “When I came off, I thought, ‘Come on, they’ve not had a chance all game’, and I was sure we’d see it out. But then, just one move at the end and they managed to equalise.

“We were all gutted. In those circumstances, it feels like a loss.

“But we’ve characters in the team and they all homed in on the fact that it was a really good performance, and we have to take the positives in how we played, because we completely dominated.”

Reflecting on the “two points dropped”, Spurs boss Rehanne Skinner acknowledged that her side were staying fourth in the table because of their own failures in front of goal.

She added: “It feels like two points dropped – based on the way we’ve completely dominated the game from start to finish, apart from five minutes just before half-time.

“All it boils down to is we haven’t put the ball in the back of the net when we needed to.”

Arsenal’s match at Reading and Chelsea’s trip to Everton were both postponed on Sunday due to Covid-19 cases and injuries following requests made by the two home teams.

If this Sunday’s WSL games get the go-ahead there will be some mouth-watering fixtures, with Arsenal travelling to Manchester City, while Spurs face a tough away day against Manchester United.

Chelsea are due to play away at Brighton & Hove Albion.