London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips says that her side are well-aware of the fine margins of the Barclays Women’s Championship ahead of their derby fixture at Crystal Palace on Sunday evening.
The two sides met in the reverse fixture at Princes Park back in late August. Crystal Palace won that match 1-0 thanks to an Isabella Sibley goal early in the second half.
Both sides had chances in that game, the difference was that the visitors converted their big opportunity. London City Lionesses head coach Phillips says that her side have reflected on that defeat and they are well-aware of the fine lines of the Barclays Women’s Championship as they look to renew their rivalry with Crystal Palace on Sunday.
“Palace have a squad full of really good players and they are quite unpredictable in terms of how they are going to play or how they are going to set up,” Phillips said when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time. “They’re also very good with the ball, they lead the league in terms of possession stats.
“Looking back on the game, it was a very high-level game, there were quality performances from both teams and it was a matter of fine margins. They had one that hit the crossbar that they tucked away from the rebound and we had that same opportunity that we didn’t put away. We talked about it that those are the fine margins for this league.
“We look back and we think that we could have put away a few opportunities in transition but I’m sure it’ll be another high-level game where we will have to be really clinical and focus on our own performance.”
Crystal Palace were defeated 2-0 by Charlton Athletic in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup in midweek. The game was something of a dead rubber for The Eagles but London City Lionesses boss Phillips still took some learnings away ahead of this weekend’s match.
She said “Credit to Charlton because they tucked away goals in really timely moments of the match but they also just looked determined in the game. They were determined to keep Palace in their half, really up for it, of course it is a derby game for them as well so it was a really competitive match.
“A lot of different players played throughout the first half and second half, we know that, but there are always things to take away, even when it comes to little patterns of play, when you watch the opposition in preparation for them.”
London City Lionesses’ Barclays Women’s Championship fixture against Crystal Palace kicks-off at 6pm on Sunday evening.