'Control The Controllables' – Bedford's Pre-Birmingham Women Message

- LCFC Women host Birmingham City Women at King Power Stadium on Sunday (2pm GMT kick-off)
- The Foxes know a victory will see them overtake the Blues in the Women's Super League
- Manager Lydia Bedford says she will be monitoring the nature of City's performance on Filbert Way
- She also speaks with excitement ahead of her debut managing at the Club's home venue

The Foxes welcome the Blues to Filbert Way on matchday 10 in the Barclays FA Women's Super League – the final round of fixtures before Christmas – knowing a victory will see them leapfrog their visitors in the standings. Leicester are bottom, but Birmingham sit just one point and one place above them. 

Bedford was recruited as manager earlier this month and made her debut in the dugout away at Arsenal, before Wednesday's home Continental Tyres League Cup fixture against Manchester City was postponed due to a number of COVID-19 cases in the Citizens' squad.

That means Sunday's outing will be her first home game in charge and, with City currently boasting the fourth-highest average attendance in the WSL, Bedford is excited by the occasion.

"I can’t wait," she said during Friday's virtual press conference at Belvoir Drive. "It’s a wonderful stadium and it’s going to be a great occasion for the girls and the key on Sunday is keeping our nerve and not worry too much about the occasion.

"For me, personally, to be out on the touchline on Sunday will be a really nice moment and I’m looking forward to it. We hope we get as much support there as possible to really cheer the girls on because we’re going to need every one of them behind them.

"I said to the girls this morning that we’ve got 11 games left this season. They can’t put all their eggs in one basket this weekend and just think about the result. The performance is really important. If we get a performance and a result on Sunday, it’ll give us a launch pad into the second half of the season.

"If we get the performance and not the result, we know we’re progressing, but they’ve got to keep their eyes on all 11 of those games. We can’t be solely focused on one because there’s things you can’t control. My message to them is to control what they can control.

"If we do all of that within the game, then finger’s crossed we’ll get the result that we deserve and, beyond Christmas, we’ll build from that."

Bedford's pre-match message is a calming one, pointing to the wider context of the clash, while also focusing on the nature of her side's performance against Birmingham. The Foxes will then go into a three-week break after tackling the Blues and Bedford wants them to be satisfied with their display.

"Control the controllables – whatever bits we can control," she added. "I think if we do that on Sunday then they’ll take confidence as the game goes on.

"I imagine the first 10 minutes will be pretty cagey from both sides and they’ll be trying to work out how each other’s set up and how they’re going to play, but I am confident that our girls will grow into the game. If they can manage those nerves, then I’m confident they’ll grow in confidence.

"If you look at their second-half performance against Arsenal, as they grew into the game, they worked hard for each other and they did that with 10 players. We’ll start the game with 11 and hopefully keep 11 on the pitch and finger’s crossed we can build.

"In every game, you want to win. This one becomes more tasty because of the league positions of both clubs.

"Both teams are going to go out, I’m sure, with an intention of walking away with three points and whichever team does that, it gives them a great platform to really start to build from and it starts to widen that gap. It’s a pretty important one.

"You see it every year in the WSL. We could throw the kitchen sink at Birmingham weekend, not get a result, and go out and pinch points off four or five other teams throughout the season and still climb the table. You can’t purely just focus on this one game as the opportunity to do that.

"It will obviously have an impact if we don’t pick up points this weekend because it makes the jump a little bit bigger to be able to climb back, but in my eyes, the players’ aim for this season is to climb the table. We can do that regardless of whether we get three points this weekend.

"It’s about being focused on that, keeping them together and then using the time over Christmas to rebuild. Good or bad, whatever happens, we’ve got a pause for a week after that, which will allow them to regroup and come back together and fighting in that second half [of the season]."