Leicester City head coach Lydia Bedford said that there were plenty of positives to take from her side’s opening day defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Foxes went down 2-1 to Spurs at The King Power Stadium yesterday. There was little between the two sides until the visitors netted two impressive goals in the final 10 minutes of the first half. Leicester City came out in the second half and threw everything they had at the visitors. Drew Spence’s own goal gave The Foxes hope but they were unable to find an equaliser.
When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match, Leicester City boss Bedford said that there were positives to come out of the defeat.
“There are lots of positives to take,” Bedford said. “Obviously, you are disappointed when you lose but I was really pleased with the players’ response at half-time and the way that we handled ourselves.
“These players will not stop running for each other and that’s why we were disappointed at half-time to sit there and say that we had probably gone off the boil a little bit and let them grow into that last 20 minutes of the first half. From the perspective of their togetherness, they’ll fix that quite quickly and they’ll stick together.”
After struggling to put pressure on Spurs in the first half, Leicester City enjoyed more play heading into the final third after the break. Bedford said that the aggression of the wing-backs changed the flow of the game and allowed her side to put some pressure on their opponents, albeit at a point where they were chasing the game.
She said “Based on what we changed at half-time, there were certainly moments in the first half where we probably could have been more aggressive from our wing-backs which is what we did in the second half and it caused problems.
“It is just about identifying those areas and exploiting them in those key moments as quickly as we can.”
Leicester City return to action next weekend when they welcome Aston Villa to The King Power Stadium.