West Ham boss Paul Konchesky aiming to ‘close the gap’ in the WSL and cups

West Ham boss Paul Konchesky is aiming to “close the gap” on the top teams ahead of his side’s Continental Tyres League Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

A last-minute Dagny Brynjarsdottir goal secured victory against Liverpool in the quarter-finals, helping the Hammers edge to the final four and set up a clash with the Blues.

West Ham are the only semi-finalists who are not in the top four of the Women’s Super League, with Arsenal and Manchester City contesting the other tie, however Konchesky insisted that his team are building the foundations to compete in more semi-finals and finals.

“Our ambition is we want to close that gap, that means getting to semi-finals but maybe getting one step further and getting to finals,” he told a pre-match press conference.

“That’s our aim, we’re here for a reason, we’ve done well in this cup and hopefully we can take it one step further on Thursday and get to the final.

“We are trying to close the gap in the league and in these cup games, hopefully that’s proven on the pitch.

“It’d be fantastic [to reach the final], it’s normally the top four that people talk about in the final, so why can’t it be someone like us?

“We’ll give it everything we can to get to the final because, not just for myself, but my staff and my players deserve to be in a final and hopefully it can be this season.”

The Hammers go into Thursday’s tie looking to carry some momentum from the league, having picked up a point against Arsenal in a 0-0 draw at the weekend.

However, they face competition from a strong Chelsea side, who are currently top of the WSL table and have previously won this cup competition twice before in 2020 and 2021.

The Blues comfortably beat Tottenham 3-1 in their quarter-final, but Konchesky says his team are preparing for the challenge as they would for any “normal game”.

He said: “We know it’ll be a tough game, we’ve got Chelsea, but they’re anyone’s games and we have to treat this just like a normal game.

“We don’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves, we want to go into it like a normal game, like we would a WSL game, and we’ll see what happens.

“[Chelsea are] there for a reason at the top, but one day they have to be beaten, so hopefully we can be the team that do that on Thursday.

“We’ll give it our best, I think you’ve seen that with this team this year, a lot of games we’ve been underdogs and we’ve proved people wrong, so hopefully we can do that on Thursday.

“[Chelsea are] attack-minded, they’ve got some fantastic players, but we’ve shown we can compete with that.

“Thursday is a one-off game, if we’re on top and we’re up for the game then hopefully we’ll be able to change people’s minds.”