We’re Developing As A Team, Says McManus

- Abbie McManus provided her thoughts on LCFC Women’s opening Barclays FA Women’s Super League clash
- The defender made her competitive Foxes debut in the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Banks’s Stadium
- She saw plenty of positives in the performance to give the team confidence ahead of facing Manchester United
- Tickets are on general sale for Sunday’s WSL fixture at King Power Stadium, HERE

The Foxes began life in the top-flight with a 2-1 reverse away to Aston Villa on Saturday, leading through Natasha Flint’s goal before Sarah Mayling and Remi Allen tipped the game in the home’s side favour.

Although feeling frustrated to come away from Banks’s Stadium empty handed, McManus saw lots of encouraging signs from the team’s first WSL outing when speaking in her post-match interview with LCFC TV.

The Prestwich-born defender commented: “In the second half, we had a dip for 60 seconds and it cost us two goals. In the WSL, you can’t do that. Teams will punish you and that’s what has happened today.

“I felt the game plan that we had today paid off, definitely in the first half anyway. We pressed them, we were aggressive, we knew what we wanted to do against them, and it worked for 45 minutes.

“In the second half, for those 60 seconds we switched off, and we’ve lost three points today so it’s disappointing.”

Making her competitive debut for the Foxes, McManus donned the captain’s armband for the second half following Sophie Barker's half-time withdrawal due to injury.

The centre-back, who has played at the highest level for club and country, recognises that the squad’s development will continue in the coming weeks as they adapt to new roles and pressures.

She explained: “It’s obviously disappointing when you put the captain’s armband on and then, for those 45 minutes, you lose. It’s a learning curve for myself, I’ve never really been a leader in a team. I’m growing as an individual and the team are growing together.

“I said to the girls when we went out for the second half that the vibe in the dressing room we had at half-time was the same one I wanted at full-time. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that.

“It’s not a nice feeling when you lose, especially in our league debut. We’ll all go away from this looking at ourselves individually, collectively. We’re going to get some analysis and go through it.

“We’re disappointed with the result but the performance, we can take many, many positives from, it’s just not quite come off today.”

The 28-year-old, one of seven new arrivals over the summer, expects the Foxes to quickly find their feet in the division and believes there’s no better place to start putting points on the board than in their opening home fixture against her former side, Manchester United.

LCFC Women host the Red Devils at King Power Stadium on Sunday (2pm BST kick-off), with all focus now on preparing for that encounter.

“Jonathan has spoken to us in the changing room and he’s not given us a battering,” she added. “He knows that for 85 minutes of that game we’ve given it everything. We put full heart, passion and soul into that game.

“It wasn’t enough but hopefully we move on to Sunday now, we’ve got Man Utd, which is another big game, and we need three points. We need to start climbing that table. We don’t want to be the team that’s on zero.

“We know what we’ve got to do in training, we’re back in on Tuesday so two days to rest and recover and then hopefully we’ll go again against United.”

Tickets for the fixture at King Power Stadium are available to purchase HERE.