Hammers live on Sky Saturday morning

West Ham vs Villa

West Ham Women vs Aston Villa Women is live on Sky Sports Premier League from 11 am; kick-off 11.30 am.

West Ham Women have two long-term absentees. Katerina Svitkova is recovering from a long-term ankle injury, while Maisy Barker sustained a foot injury during the early stages of pre-season. Hammer Hawa Cissoko is suspended after being sent off in last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Brighton.

To use a cliche, it has been one incredible football journey for West Ham Women manager Olli Harder. He has worked in his native New Zealand, the USA, China and Norway before returning to the UK – where he has also coached previously – to take over the managerial reigns in East London.

“I’m a Kiwi so I just got with the flow,” Harder explained ahead of Saturday’s game against Aston Villa Women,

They’re just things that happened, I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to finish one chapter and open another chapter. Some of these things are a little bit planned out but also things can happen quite quickly, you know how football is, it’s certainly not a sport you want to plan in too much because things change very quickly.

“I think because I’ve got such an open mindset about these things, it’s just allowed me to say ‘OK this chapter is closed or I’ve decided to close this chapter’ and then I’d like to go somewhere else and not really having any fear to do that.

“There’s no consideration like ‘oh well I don’t speak this language or what’s the culture like’, but just ‘this sounds cool so let’s go and do it’. My worst-case scenario is to go back to New Zealand, but that’s not terrible, it could be lot worse.”

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter