BATMAN AND ROBINS – Spurs boss Martin Ho meets old pal/new foe Charlotte Healy at Bristol City

Sandwiched between the WSL and the international break comes the Subway Cup, with the chance for the giants to assert their dominance, and for the minnows to take down a top WSL side.

Helen M Jerome talks to Tottenham Hotspur head coach Martin Ho – still basking in the glory glory of getting a point in the North London Derby – about meeting his old friend Charlotte Healy, now in charge of WSL2 side, Bristol City.

And crucially we discover whether Lize ‘Batman’ Kop will still have her mask on when she faces the high-flying Robins…

Has Lize Kop got the mask off yet?

Martin Ho: She has to wear it for training as a precaution; you have to wear it for a certain amount of time to make sure she’s protected first and foremost, and that she’s comfortable and feels some security.

So yeah, she still wears it for training and for games in the near future. But hopefully over a period of time, we can remove that mask when Lize makes the right progress.

You’re away at Bristol City in the Subway Cup this weekend, and you obviously know their head coach Charlotte Healy really, really well.

You spent a lot of time with her at Man United, so can you tell me a little bit about her as a coach, a person and what you expect from her team?

Yeah, I worked with Charlotte, as you said, at Manchester United for years while I was there, in a senior capacity and also when we were in the academy.

I know Charlotte really well. That doesn’t mean I know everything about her as a coach, and what she’s trying to do.

But I know the way she sees football and the way she likes to play football. And she’s got that job based on her hard work and commitment to what she does.

I know that her team’s going to be well organised. It’s going to be very, very efficient in terms of with the ball. They’re very direct and forward thinking, which is important. But also defensively, they’re very resilient, very organised.

They make it hard for you to break them down, and they’ve played maybe in two different systems throughout the season.

So we have to be aware of that if they play a different system. But, yeah, I expect a tough game and she’s a good coach and she has good players and good staff around her. We need to be as prepared as we are. And we take the game seriously.

Obviously turning that around, Charlotte will know your style as well. So have you got any surprises up your sleeves?

Yeah. She’ll know me as a person. Maybe my way of playing is different to when you are working as an assistant. You are coaching the principles and game model of a head coach who’s in front of you.

Maybe the way I think of football is slightly different, but she’ll definitely have watched the games, which will give an indication of what we’re trying to do and how we try to do things. She definitely knows how I think about football, and where I want my team to behave.

So I have to make sure that we cause some problems, which we will do.

We have, as you just said, some different problems for the solutions they will try and find. We’ve worked on some of those aspects over this week.

My last question is, it’d be great if you can win this cup game, but this is usually the occasion for everyone to rotate their squads. So I’m guessing there’ll be a few players we don’t always see starting that you’ll put that there on Sunday?

I’ll always put the best team out, and I think maybe people see it as a competition to rotate, but I don’t take any game in any competition lightly.

I’m not here just to take part and turn up and play a game.

We win or we lose. And I want to make sure we build a winning culture. And what I feel is the right team to go out in this game – to win the game – is the one I’ll put out.

If that includes or doesn’t include changes, it’s what I feel is right for the game plan and if opportunity presents itself within the game to start or come into the game, then I’ll give those players the opportunity when it’s right.