Women's football news
Written by: Stuart
The Rooks travel to Dartford on Thursday to face the Lionesses at Princes Park. The match takes place after the original fixture was postponed in March due to a high number of COVID cases in the Lewes squad.
Due to that postponement Craig Gill’s side come into this after four home fixtures at The Dripping Pan. The home matches were a mixed bag of results with a win over Crystal Palace, a draw with Durham and defeats to Bristol City and Sheffield United last time out.
Gill spoke of his disappointment at that result ahead of Thursday’s trip.
“Obviously last time out we lost 2-0 to Sheffield United which was a bit of an off day for us, we didn’t quite get into gear, and we caught between playing it out and playing it longer.
But, we’ve addressed this, we’ve reviewed the performance and we’ll be looking at putting that right against London on Thursday.”
Focus on the Lionesses
The Rooks picked up their first points and win of the season in the reverse fixture, winning 1-0 at home, courtesy of an early Ini Umotong strike.
Gill believes the team are prepared for the challenge ahead of them.
“We’re very much looking forward to playing against London City on Thursday having had a break for the international break. They’ve come off the back of a good 2-0 victory over Charlton, so we know they’ll be a really difficult test for us.
We’ve done analysis, we know what their strengths are, we’ve also recognised areas to exploit as well. We’ve been working on that in training this week.”
With three games to go, Lewes find themselves eighth in the table and six points behind their hosts. Gill was pleased with the attitude of the players as the season comes to a close.
“It’s great to see that the girls with three weeks to go, and three games to go, have still got that enthusiasm, obviously, and that desire, and hunger, if you like, to do as well as they can everyday in training. We’re looking for that to take forward into their performances for the last three games against London, Coventry, and Liverpool.”
A positive international break
This season has seen a number of Rooks in international action and this break was no different. Two players went away to represent their countries much to the delight of their club-level manager.
“[It was] great to see Rebecca McKenna involved with the Northern Ireland squad this week again against Austria and England. And also, Lea, who’s played for Belgium u23s against France, so great experiences for them. We’re hoping that more of our players can get international recognition as time goes on.”
For those not on international duty, Gill believes the team had an extremely positive break on and off the training pitch.
“The fact that we’ve had a break last week, because of the international break, so we were able to give the girls a couple of days off, which I think the players responded well to.”
“They came back with the batteries recharged and that’s shown in training this week, with great energy and great positivity, which we’ll take forward not only into the London City game but into the last three weeks of the season.”
Player to Watch
Amy Rodgers tops all the charts for London City with the most goals (5), most assists (4) and appearances (19) this season.
London City Lionesses versus Lewes FC kicks off at 7pm on Thursday 14th April and is available to watch live on FAPlayer.