Manchester City fans can tick off a new ground this weekend when The Cityzens travel to The Breyer Group Stadium in Leyton to take on Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs made the switch from The Hive in Edgware to The Breyer Group Stadium, home of Leyton Orient, over the summer. The quality of the playing surface at The Hive sometimes came in for criticism from some Barclays Women’s Super League bosses and the pitch at The Breyer Group Stadium could offer Spurs the opportunity to further develop their game this season.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Manchester City boss Taylor said that he is hopeful of his side playing on a good quality playing surface at The Breyer Group Stadium this weekend.
“There were issues with The Hive, it took a lot of hits because a lot of teams played there,” Taylor said. “Hopefully, we get a decent surface to play on tomorrow.
“I think the pitches have improved a lot. When we went to Dagenham right towards the end of last season, you could see that they had invested a lot of money on the pitch. The standards of the pitch (at Leyton Orient) are hopefully the same on Saturday and have really risen highly.”
Manchester City have already suffered two defeats in this season’s Barclays Women’s Super League. While winning the title will be difficult, Taylor said that he doesn’t feel that the game at Spurs should be labelled as ‘must-win’.
He said “They’re all must win when you only have 22 games, the hardest thing to do is win them. Everyone is capable of beating everyone on their day, which makes the job more difficult. When you lose a few games, it makes the winning of the title difficult. That’ll never change and I’m pretty sure every coach would say the same.
“For us, must win is probably a bit too extreme, it’s important for us not to lose it, we go into games trying to win. I always look at performance level, that’s always something that sits well with me if we perform to our levels or not, it usually dictates whether you’re going to be successful. Sometimes you’re fortunate enough, but being good in both boxes gives you the best chance to win the game.”
Manchester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at The Breyer Group Stadium kicks-off at 11.30am on Saturday morning.