We've Never Written Ourselves Off, Says O’Brien

- LCFC Women take on Brighton & Hove Albion this Saturday afternoon (2:30pm BST kick-off)
- The final Barclays Women’s Super League fixture of the season is to be played at Broadfield Stadium
- City will head into the match two points above bottom-placed Reading
- All the information to follow the Foxes this weekend can be found HERE

Last time out in the league, Leicester were beaten 2-1 by West Ham United at King Power Stadium, a result which meant that the fate of their survival would go down to the last day, when they take on Brighton at Broadfield Stadium.

Seven points adrift at Christmas, O’Brien told the media that confidence has never wavered in the Foxes’ camp, and that destiny is in their own hands thanks to work being put in everyday by those at the Club.

“It’s been a different type of season for me,” the striker admitted. “It’s been a tough four or five months from my injury perspective. I’ve been on the sidelines looking like a fan, and it’s been nice to see how the Club have adapted and how the confidence has grown since January.

“We never wrote ourselves off, other people can do that, but we just ignore it. We turned the situation around last year as well, so we have confidence from the knowledge that we've achieved league safety before.

“We just need to trust in our ability and trust in the manager, and the way Willie [Kirk] wants us to play football, so we keep working hard every day and focused on ourselves."

Sidelined for the majority of the season with injury, the English forward is disappointed to have not been able to further help the cause of her team, but explains how she has continued to aid in any way she can, and commends the players’ efforts for getting to this point.

She added: “As injured players, we’re still in and around the group so we see how they’re training and how we’re trying to build as a team. It’s just on a matchday when you’re watching from the side.

“You don’t feel the heat from a game because you’re not involved, but sometimes that’s a good thing to be able to provide a different perspective as you can watch the game with no pressure from being on the pitch.

“It’s a huge achievement (to stay in the WSL) and turn over how we started the season, but that’s credit to the girls and staff for putting the belief in us and trusting our abilities when everyone was saying it wasn’t achievable.

“It will be a big turnaround, but we’re not there yet, we’ve got a big game coming up against Brighton and that’s all we’re thinking about right now.”

Having picked up four wins and a draw on their way to catching up with the rest of the pack, including a victory against Saturday’s opponents in the reverse fixture, the 21-year-old states that this situation they find themselves in is not unfamiliar.

“I don’t think anyone would’ve complained if they said we’d have the last game of the season to confirm safety,” O’Brien continued. “It’s in our hands and to be honest we’re used to being in pressured environments.

“We dominated the West Ham game in certain areas, so we’re not going to get too upset about that, it’s still in our hands and it’s up to us and how we perform Saturday, so we’re ready to give it everything.

“There’s not pressure on us, all the pressure comes from an outside perspective. We know when we’ve needed to step up and we have, so we back ourselves to perform. It’s about playing the football we know we can, like we did against Reading and Liverpool.

“We don’t need to look at the Reading game (against Chelsea), because safety is in our own hands. If we do our job, then it doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere and we’ll be fine. We had a seven-point deficit to overturn which we always believed we could, so we can’t stop now.”