London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips has paid tribute to the club for their ‘incredible’ effort to help protect their bubble from COVID-19.
The Pride have returned to training fit and well with the players and staff adhering to the COVID-safe protocols put in place.
In a week that has seen the women’s game heavily criticised for the manner in which some players have either been infected with COVID-19 or have come into close contact with others who have the illness, the message given by London City Lionesses head coach Phillips about her group has been refreshing.
When speaking to FA Women’s Super League Full-Time in London City Lionesses’ midweek press conference, Phillips hailed the club’s effort to remain COVID-secure whilst giving an example of the lengths in which her players will go to remain within the rules.
“Any time that it has come close to our bubble, we have looked very close at our protocols and procedures and our day-to-day operations, making sure that we provide a safe environment for the players” said Phillips.
“They’ve done an amazing job adhering to that, holding each other able to that standard.
“Our medical team have been fantastic in really going above and beyond about the education of what the lockdown is, what that means for us and how it affects us day-to-day.
“We try to stay as safe as possible even if it’s that we have a grab-and-go dinner one night and send one member of the team to protect us from all travelling back into the environment together, those are the kind of adjustments that we do day-to-day.
“The players have done an incredible job, as have the staff, to protect the bubble.”
London City Lionesses are set to take on neighbours Crystal Palace in a London derby at Princes Park on Sunday. The Pride are unbeaten in London derbies in the FA Women’s Championship so far this season after battling to a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture and beating London Bees. Despite the club’s good form against fellow capital sides, Phillips is just treating the game like any other.
She said “They are fired up to play any game and ultimately for us, it is about building on all of the positive experiences and learning from all of the lessons that we learnt in the first half of the season.
“Palace is a game that we feel like ‘shoulda woulda coulda’ a little bit when we had them first time around.
“Both teams have improved since then and like we have seen with the league, it is very much about the team who shows up and performs best on the day to get the result.
“The goal is to keep driving ourselves forward in the second half of the season.”
The Crystal Palace game is one of three London derbies which London City Lionesses will face this month with Phillips’ side also set to travel to both London Bees and Charlton Athletic. The Lionesses head coach is excited for what is to come this month as her side look to remain fully focused on matters on the pitch.
Phillips added “I think it is an exciting run of fixtures throughout the month of January and into February and the bulk of the second half of the season will be played.
“It’s important that we take one match at a time and prepare accordingly.”
London City Lionesses’ FA Women’s Championship fixture against Crystal Palace will take place at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and will be available for fans to stream live on the FA Player.
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