London Bees manager Lee Burch highlighted Leicester City’s additional quality in the final third as his side slipped to a 3-0 defeat at Farley Way this afternoon.
The Bees matched The Foxes’ high tempo for much of the match and were relatively solid at the back but they were undone by two quality strikes from the edge of the box before conceding a third goal from close range.
When speaking to FA Women’s Super League Full-Time after the match, Bees boss Burch admitted that the home side’s quality in the final third was the difference.
“Until after their second goal, the game plan that we had was certainly working” said Burch. “The most annoying thing is that we were having our best spell when they scored the second goal.
“Certainly the first two goals were from high levels of individual quality and that’s what you get when you are a professional side compared to where we are.
“That was the difference today, they just had that little bit of quality in the final third.”
London Bees certainly had their chances to get back into the game early in the second half but a combination of bad decision making and poor finishing resulted in them failing to really test home keeper Kirstie Levell.
Speaking about those missed opportunities, Burch said “Mel Filis has got the ball down and it was a great turn but she has decided to shoot and she should just roll Brooke (Nunn) or Marianne (Taho) in.
“Back stick Brooke gets in and should score really and she will be disappointed with that.
“Against good sides like this, you are not going to get loads of opportunities. We should be getting into the box and finishing them off but we didn’t.”
While London Bees are quickly becoming 1-0 win specialists at home, they are yet to produce the results on their travels but manager Burch says that the club are working on a formula which could help them begin to collect points on the road, particularly against some of the sides around them in the table.
“We are working on a formula” said the Bees boss. “We are trying to make sure that when we play the teams around us away, we are moving towards being tougher to beat.”
It won’t get much easier on the road for London Bees just yet. Burch must take his side to promotion hopefuls Liverpool and Durham in their next two away games before travelling to three lower ranked opponents before the season comes to an end.
The Bees are back in action in a fortnight’s time when they welcome Coventry United to The Hive. That game could see fans attend for the first time in more than 12 months.
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