London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips says that the club’s current position at the top of the Barclays Women’s Championship table has not come into conversation.
The Pride head towards Christmas with solid title claims but they will be severely tested against a Southampton side who are in good form themselves when the pair meet at Princes Park on Sunday.
With London City Lionesses in pole position, they are the club that their rivals will want to shoot down but head coach Phillips says that her group have not talked about managing the expectation of being league leaders.
“It’s not part of our day-to-day conversation (how to manage being top of the league),” Phillips told FAWSL Full-Time. “Our day-to-day conversation consists of the next performance and what is required to get three points.
“We have an incredibly focused group who are taking a lot of ownership right now. We are always looking at the areas that we need to improve on and then trying to put our stamp on the next game.
“We don’t look at the table, it is not part of our day-to-day conversation, we just look at how we get to where we want to be in the end.”
Both London City Lionesses and Southampton are unbeaten in the league since opening day. Phillips went on to say that her side will have to be at their very best to defeat a well-organised Southampton team.
She said “Southampton are a very well-coached side, a very organised side. We played them in pre-season last year and it was the same thing – a very organised, very hard-working and very competitive team.
“They’ve done an excellent job to keep clean sheets themselves and make games really tight. They’ve also found ways to hit the back of the net, whether that is in transition or just really well-executed attacks.
“We know it will be a high-level game and we know that our movement in possession, ability to take risks and finding penetrating passes are going to have to be exceptional at the weekend to break them down.”
The Barclays Women’s Championship fixture between London City Lionesses and Southampton kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets are on-sale now and can be purchased by clicking here.