Leicester City manager Lydia Bedford has called on her side to be defensively resilient ahead of this afternoon’s hugely important Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Reading.
The two teams are the only clubs in the Barclays Women’s Super League yet to pick up a point this season. Given the positions of the two clubs, this afternoon’s fixture at the Select Car Leasing Stadium holds major importance.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Leicester City boss Bedford said that her side must be defensively resilient.
“Reading are always a well organised, hard-working team,” Bedford said. “Kelly (Chambers) has put a lot of work into the club over a number of years. We played them in pre-season in what was a really hotly contested game.
“We’ve seen some very similar trends in how they started the season to what we experienced in pre-season. They’ll try to press you in high areas and try to win the ball back in those areas to punish.
“They’ve conceded goals that we would look at and say our defensive qualities mean we wouldn’t concede such goals, if that was us. From our perspective, it’s about putting on a defensively resilient performance. That will make it difficult for them to pick up little bits and then really starting to show some of our in possession flair, which came out last week if you watch the second half against Manchester United, but probably didn’t get capitalised on.
“We know Reading are an organised side, but I think it will be a good spectacle and we’ll give everything we can to walk away with something from the game.”
Discussing the importance of the fixture, Bedford went on to say that it provides a great opportunity for her side.
She said “I think it is a great opportunity. We have been really competitive against some great sides so far this season and we have not come out with any points as a result of those performances.
“I don’t think one game will define the season but we know that there is an opportunity to put on a performance that deserves points and come away with them. If we don’t, we will have to keep pushing next week to put ourselves in a position to keep fighting for those points.”
Leicester City’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Reading kicks-off at 2pm.
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