London City Lionesses set for real scrap at Charlton Athletic – Phillips

London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips is expecting a real battle when her side travel to neighbours Charlton Athletic in the FA Women’s Championship on Thursday.

It has been 20 months since Charlton Athletic last won a home fixture in the FA Women’s Championship while London City Lionesses are winless away in over a year. Both sides will therefore be very keen to end those respective unwanted records at The Oakwood in Thursday’s derby encounter.

London City Lionesses head coach Mel Phillips spoke with FA Women’s Super League Full-Time ahead of the match and she said that she is expecting the game to be a real scrap.

“They’ve (Charlton) had a hard run of games due to weather and COVID so I am sure that they will be eager as ever to get matches back on again” said Phillips.

“It is a big derby game and it will be a tough match, we know that they will always be up for it.

“It’ll be a tough, scrappy, chippy game. Ultimately, we will have to match that battle physically and really stretch them out to allow us to focus on our football.

Despite their winless away run, London City Lionesses have kept clean sheets in their last two fixtures on the road while they have done well against the sides in the lower reaches of the FA Women’s Championship table, taking seven points from an available nine against Coventry United and London Bees this season.

Looking back on what positives can be taken from the club’s results against the sides below The Pride in the league table, Phillips said “We look back on those games and try to figure out where we grew, what we can learn from and what were the positives and try to apply those points to future games.

“We will reflect on what we have learnt from those teams who are lower than us in the table but also from those above us.

“For us, it doesn’t matter who we are playing, we will just look to show up and put in a good performance that is based around effort, competing, attitude, good energy and good communication across the pitch.

London City Lionesses’ FA Women’s Championship fixture against Charlton Athletic is scheduled to kick-off at 7.45pm at The Oakwood on Thursday evening.