Joe Montemurro claimed Jordan Nobbs has ‘grown as a footballer’ after she marked her return from an ACL injury with a goal against Tottenham on Sunday.

Nobbs, who suffered the injury against Everton Women in November, played 45 minutes in a 6-0 friendly victory over their north London rivals at Meadow Park.

"I'm so proud of her," the Australian said.

"Her rehab's been fantastic, she's been doing all the right things and she's just grown as a footballer.

"When I first arrived here (November 2017), she wanted to do everything, but now she's become more intelligent on the pitch.

"She's become much more measured and efficient in how she can hurt teams."

Nobbs joined a midfield which was dominant on the day as Jill Roord scored a hat-trick while Kim Little and Danielle van de Donk supplied extra support.

From the touchline, Montemurro instructed the midfielders to switch roles at differing points of the game, which made them increasingly hard to pick up.

Having such creative midfielders at his disposal is something the 49-year-old is looking to enjoy again when the WSL season begins in September.

"Our football is more about midfielders getting forward than 'hold-up' strikers. It's very difficult to track runners from deep or midfield combinations and I'm happy I've got that to use going forward," he added.

"We don't play with two sixes who just sit in midfield. We rotate and our number 10s play as eights so it's quite fluid.

"With Danielle, Kim and Jill in there, it's great. When Jordan is back to full fitness we'll be able to rotate those areas.

"Lia Walti isn't too far from coming back too, so I'll have some headaches in a few weeks."

Sunday also marked the first north London derby of the season, before the men's sides do battle at Emirates Stadium this weekend.

For Spurs Women, this will be their first foray into the rebranded WSL which Montemurro is excited about.

"They're in the big time now and they need to play with the big people so we'll see how that develops," he said.

"We're looking forward to the next meetings and we can't dance around the fact it's a north London derby and we'll take that in our stride.

"It's great to have another big club in the WSL, competing and looking at women's football as an important part of that."