We Were Caught By Quality Opposition, Says Bedford

- LCFC Women were defeated 9-0 by Chelsea at King Power Stadium on Sunday
- The new WSL leaders scored four in 11 minutes to record an emphatic victory  
- Lydia Bedford took ownership of the result and how she set the side up to play
- The Foxes are back on Filbert Way this Sunday to face title-chasing Arsenal

The Blues stormed into a four-nil lead inside 11 minutes, courtesy of strikes from Guro Reiten, Sam Kerr, Beth England and Aniek Nouwen, and the scoring continued via further first-half goals from England and Reiten.

Kerr also added her second soon after the interval, before two late goals from substitutes Lauren James and Jessie Fleming rounded off the afternoon for Emma Hayes’ side, who move to the summit of the top-flight table.

Assessing what went wrong for the Foxes, Bedford took ownership of the tactical decisions that led to being cut open in the opening stages, setbacks which they were unable to recover from in order to gain a foothold in the game.

She told LCFC TV: “I think tactically from the start, the way we tried to press them caught us out early on in the game and we’ve shown before when we play with that aggressive style of pressure and you can get through the first phase of the game, it normally works in our favour.

“But Chelsea are a team full of class players and within seven minutes they had put three goals in the back of the net. I have to reflect on that and own it as a manager. I asked them to play that style of football and today it caught us out early.

“They had done their due diligence, they knew the style we would play from having done it last time and from our perspective, we felt that this game was the first of three that could be quite tough and we also challenged the players to go out and play that way because we wanted to see where we were at.

“Once we know where we’re at and we’ve gone a few goals behind, it’s really important that we know how to shut up shop and keep the game at bay.”

City were hit by an injury to stand-in captain Ashleigh Plumptre half an hour into the match and Bedford provided an update on her current condition following a collision with the frame of the goal which led to her being unable to continue.

The 34-year-old explained: “Ash’s is a concussion protocol as she clashed with the post, which we’ll obviously assess and see where she’s at on Tuesday.”

The ex-England youth coach pointed to an improved second-half display as some encouragement to take, up against it after conceding six times in the opening 45 minutes. She also referenced the unwavering backing from the supporters throughout the afternoon.

“I asked them at half time who was with us, and I said I needed 11 soldiers on the pitch,” Bedford continued. “It was about character, and I think they showed that. Obviously, Chelsea went on and scored a few more goals at the end, but the disappointment you could see in their eyes at the end of the game shows how much they cared about that result and how much it hurts.

“The noise in the first half and the second half didn’t stop from the fans, regardless of the scoreline. That’s all we ask. Sometimes you need that extra body in the crowd cheering you on and for the few moments that we did break into their half and try to create a half chance, the crowd was behind us and despite the result they stuck with us, which is what we need.

“That’s what we spoke about at the end of the game. We don’t want to be here in seven days with a similar scoreline. It’s important that we regroup on Tuesday, and we pick ourselves up to get ready to go again.”