Bedford’s Belief In The Process Ahead Of Man Utd Fixture
- LCFC Women’s next challenge is tackling Manchester United in the WSL
- The pair will face off at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday (12pm kick-off)
- Manager Lydia Bedford assesses the size of the task awaiting Leicester
- The Foxes are targeting more points in their quest to maintain WSL status
Collecting two wins out of two in February saw Leicester rise up the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table, creating an eight-point buffer to the relegation zone and leading to Bedford being named as Manager of the Month.
A run of three successive wins across all competitions was ended by Chelsea last weekend, though the 34-year-old was keen to quickly move on from that disappointment in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup, while also focusing on the bright start the team made at Kingsmeadow prior to the red card.
Manchester United are up next for the Foxes, meanwhile, travelling north to face the fourth-placed Red Devils in a 12pm kick-off at Leigh Sports Village as their league programme resumes.
Speaking in her virtual pre-match press conference from Belvoir Drive earlier this week, Bedford commented: "There’s a few lessons we can learn from the second half (against Chelsea) in terms of how we can get through games with 10 players. A key thing for our players is that you can’t control everything.
“On Tuesday we came in as a squad and we sat down and watched that 17 minutes together and we highlighted and discussed the real positives in terms of how we began that game and how we approached it and the problems that we caused within that time.
“Chelsea didn’t have a shot on target, and we created a few opportunities at the other end that hopefully in future games we capitalise on. You want to take the positives from that and use that to help us approach the games in March.
“The players have been fantastic. They knew from the moment we finished that game that the end result last week wasn’t a fair reflection of where we are as a group. It’s been really easy to motivate them this week to be honest.
“If the decision hadn’t happened in that moment, who knows what the result would have been, but from a team performance perspective, we know we would have continued to compete and that’s the most important thing for them.”
It’s the third meeting between the sides this season, but the first that Bedford and her coaching team have taken charge of. She watched on in December as Head of Women’s Football Development, Emile Heskey, oversaw a penalty shootout victory in the Continental Tyres League Cup, following a 2-2 draw during the 90 minutes.
“A really exciting part for me is that it’s the first game that I watched this team play live,” City’s manager explained. “Emile [Heskey] took them that first week that Brent [Hills] and I came in and started observing training.
“When I’ve been back and watched our performance against them in the Conti Cup, which we won, and then reflected on how much we’ve improved since then, and the qualities we’ve developed, I’m really excited for the game this weekend as a result. I think the way we approach the game this week will look very different from how we approached it three months ago.
“From a United perspective, they are a team full of quality, they’ve had some up and down results over the past month, but ultimately we know their areas of strength and how we might need to play to capitalise on those.”
Seven games remain in 2021/22 as Leicester look to secure their top-flight status for another season, which would mark a successful maiden campaign in the WSL. The work will continue right until the final whistle in May, with the level of performance key to Bedford.
The ex-England youth coach added: “At this moment in time, I feel like we’ve given ourselves a good platform to be able to build from, but ultimately, I still feel a few more results would help us make sure that we avoid relegation.
“We can’t be complacent about where we sit either. We’ve got to make sure we keep pushing so that gap remains and anything we can now do to increase that gap becomes an absolute bonus.
“We’ve said it right from the off, we focus very much on how the team performs, which is why when decisions occur that affect how you might be able to perform in the game, that hurts us.
“But from this weekend onwards, we play some really important games against some very good teams. We know if we focus on our performance, and we work hard and we work together, we’ve got a good chance of getting a result.”
All times GMT.