O’Brien Left Frustrated After Strong Reading Performance

- LCFC Women were narrowly beaten by Reading in the WSL on Sunday
- Natasha Dowie’s early goal secured a 1-0 win for the Royals in Berkshire
- Shannon O’Brien reflected on a positive performance from the Foxes
- She admitted it was a tough result to take but sees plenty of positives

Natasha Dowie’s 11th-minute wonder-strike ultimately settled the contest at Select Car Leasing Stadium, as Leicester were made to pay for missed chances and a lack of composure in front of goal during their opening Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture of 2022.

The Foxes will, though, take encouragement from the manner of the performance and the way they were able to control proceedings and open Reading up on numerous occasions, despite the Royals winning four of their last five games before Christmas, as O’Brien explained after full-time.

Speaking to LCFC TV post-match, she said: “That’s probably the toughest one of the season, just based on the performance that we gave. That’s our best performance of the season by a mile, we dominated the ball, especially second half.

“They didn’t have a single chance [in the second half] really, it’s hard to not even take a point away from the game and at the moment it feels terrible, but we’ve got to reflect and then take all the positives out of it, because there are plenty to take from the game.

“I don’t think we made them look like that team in form. We’ve built from the Birmingham game, there’s been a bit of a break, but we carried that momentum into the game, and we gave it everything. We’re just very, very unlucky not to take anything from the game.”

Demi Lambourne’s first half penalty save handed Leicester a lifeline and from that moment the visitors were the dominant force, pressing for an equaliser.

O’Brien, who was an influential figure in attacking areas, deployed as part of a flexible front three system alongside Esmee De Graaf, Abbi Grant and later Freya Gregory, felt it was City’s best display of the campaign to date.

“The penalty was a massive moment in the game,” the 20-year-old admitted. “It could turn the whole game on its head if it goes in, but Demi stepped up and kept us in it. I think we gained a bit of momentum from that and we realised we could get a bit of luck and see what could happen.

“Obviously nothing came of it, but it was a great save from Demi and gave us a lot of momentum going into the rest of the game.

“I think especially with the three that we’ve got, we can always swap and change positions depending on how the game is going. It’s a lot easier to do that instead of staying in your one position.

“Defending will be a lot easier if you stay there. It’s a lot easier for us to play if we swap positions, it gives us more chance on the ball and to get away from your defender so it’s good to be fluid, you get a lot more of the ball.”

The attacker is ready to quickly shift focus onto the next task in hand, hosting Manchester City in Burton on Wednesday before Brighton & Hove Albion visit King Power Stadium in the next league fixture this weekend, when the Foxes will hope to welcome back more of the current absentees.

 “It’s been a tough week,” the former Coventry United star added. “A few players have been missing, but we had to step up as a collective and just get on with it and we have done. We showed the fight and we showed everything that we wanted to get out of the game today, just not the result.

“It’s a positive that we’ve got a game so quick after this one. We want to flip it straight over, we don’t want to dwell on the result, we want to just get back to a game straight away and put things right so Man City is a good chance to do that.

“There’s no pressure so we can just go out and play with a bit of freedom.”