That winning feeling! City celebrate their first victory in league
THREE POINTS OVER RELEGATION RIVALS LIFTS FOXES OFF BOTTOM OF THE TABLE
LEICESTER City Women earned their first points in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League with a 2-0 victory over relegation rivals Birmingham City, writes Josh Holland, of Sportsbeat.
Sophie Howard and Sam Tierney’s first goals of the season meant Leicester leapfrog Birmingham off the foot of the BFA WSL table.
The win handed Lydia Bedford her first league victory as manager and the club’s first of the season after losing all nine of their previous WSL fixtures.
Leicester took the lead after 18 minutes in the contest’s first real attacking threat, with Molly Pike tackled before she could unleash a shot herself.
The ball eventually fell to Howard and the right wing-back curled it into the bottom corner.
The Foxes were handed a huge chance to double their lead moments later when Natasha Flint won the ball back inside the Blues’ penalty area and squared up Jess Sigsworth.
The striker could not find the right connection with the ball and it trickled just wide.
Darren Carter’s side struggled to get past the well-structured Leicester defence, but Libby
Smith’s pace created an opportunity that Jade Pennock should have done better with.
The winger’s shot from the corner of the box had too much on it and landed on the roof of the net.
All three points were sealed with 15 minutes to go when Tierney ran perfectly on to Pike’s corner before heading into the top corner for her maiden WSL goal to hand the Foxes the perfect Christmas present.
Leicester City manager Lydia Bedford said: “It was amazing. I didn’t imagine before the game what it would feel like.
“It feels great to get the three points and have a good performance on the pitch.
“I said in the pre-match interviews, there are still a lot of games left to go this season and what we do after Christmas is going to be really important but to give everyone that boost and cement what we’ve done over the past 10 days, today’s really crucial.
“I was relieved when the second goal went in because I think it starts to kill the game off.
“The second goal was a massive bonus for us. It reflected what the girls had put in for us on the pitch in the second half.
“I said to them at half-time, they’re in a great position at 1-0 up but it would be a counterattack or set-piece that would probably cause us problems and I think Birmingham are good at both of those things.
“So you’re very relieved when the second one went in but I think it was a reflection of how the girls played.
“I thought they were really solid. We changed Sam and brought Georgia on and when she came on we kept that good shape in the backline.
“Our wing-backs were critical today in terms of the spaces.”
Birmingham manager Darren Carter said: “I’m disappointed. I thought we started the game well but the injury to Louise Quinn pulled our momentum slightly and a couple of our one v ones across the pitch we were losing out.
“From our point of view, it was a poor one to concede but I thought we reacted really well to that. At half-time, we said that we need to be more aggressive in our press and how we get up the field and we did that better in the second half.
“We spent more time in their half but again, our quality at times let us down and we conceded from a set-piece which is criminal at any level.
“Then we are really behind it and chasing the game.
“We had one off the line but I’m looking and thinking, have we tested Lambourne enough? I don’t think so.
“All in all, disappointing because I don’t think we’ve reached nowhere near our ceiling today.
“I’m mindful it’s been a tough season so far for the players. We’ve come in and tried to re-wire the mindset but it’s going to take some time.
“You can still see there’s some vulnerability in them, but we’ll bring that out of them, that’s a confidence thing.
“They have to just go and realise they’re good players and they’ve got to showcase that now.
“We’ve got work to do, going into the second half of the season, we’ll give it everything that we’ve got.
“It’s my job now to lift them and take them to their potential.”
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