London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips has agreed a new contract with the club.
Phillips initially moved to Princes Park last summer as a first team assistant coach to former Lionesses boss Lisa Fallon. Phillips was promoted into the head coach role in October after Fallon opted to leave the club due to personal reasons and she has since overseen some steady growth in the side.
London City Lionesses announced the news of Phillips’ new contract via an official club press release issued to FAWSL Full-Time. The deal provides London City Lionesses with some real stability with four different head coaches having taken charge of the club since their launch in summer 2019. With the club targeting a place in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League in the long term, Phillips’ extended stay will allow her to build on the solid foundations that have been put in place this season.
The Pride will finish the 2020/2021 campaign in sixth place in the FA Women’s Championship. The club endured a slow start to the season which could be put down to a transitional period with a new head coach coming in last summer along with several new players. With current boss Phillips remaining at the helm next season, there is every chance that London City Lionesses can make a much stronger start to the new campaign to give themselves a greater chance of a promotion push.
Speaking after signing her new deal, Phillips said “I am hugely excited to continue leading the Lionesses and working alongside the club and the board to achieve our ambitions.
“The most important thing for me when I joined initially was that we shared values about professionalism and the direction that the women’s game is going and how we want to do things.
“I am incredibly grateful for their belief in me and what we are building here.”
Phillips went on to say that the team are ready to take their successes forward from this season into the new campaign and that their experiences will only make them stronger next year.
“You look at us being a newly-formed club and going to be only entering into our third year here, there are always going to be teething problems and transitions,” Phillips added. “Continuity of players and staff is really important.
“We will take all of the small victories that we have been able to celebrate this season and bring those into next season and we hope to have a really good nucleus and core of the team returning.
“For me, having that leadership from players to staff to club throughout will be really important.”
London City Lionesses end their season with a fixture against Liverpool at Prenton Park on Sunday.
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