Mixed Bag Of Emotions, Says Kirk
- LCFC Women drew 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday
- Lena Petermann and Jutta Rantala scored the City goals
- Elisabeth Terland netted a brace at Broadfield Stadium
- Leicester have nine point in the Barclays Women’s Super League
The Foxes returned to WSL action on Sunday when they made the trip to Crawley to face Brighton, who headed into the fixture one point behind Leicester, a gap which still stands following the full-time whistle.
From being 2-0 up in the game, Leicester were unable to see the game out and claim all three points, but Kirk stated that there are still positives to take.
“The result is always deemed the most important thing, and we’re frustrated with it considering the position we were in,” the 45-year-old voiced. “Performance wise, I think, bizarrely, we were really poor yet were winning 1-0 at half-time. In the second half we saw big improvements, but we ended up losing the half 2-1 and dropped two points.
“So, it’s a mixed bag in terms of how we’re feeling with the result, and letting the lead slip. We changed the shape to try and make it more secure and retaliate the subs that they were making. But we’ve defended poorly with both goals, and we had to take a point.”
Lena Petermann broke the deadlock at Broadfield Stadium with her third goal of the season, before Jutta Ranatala scored for successive games to give City the lead. Despite two late strikes from Brighton’s top goalscorer Elisabeth Terland, the former Everton manager was happy to see his side on the scoresheet once again.
“The goals were fantastic strikes,” Kirk continued. “And obviously we’ll take it, but we were a little bit frustrated that we just played this aimless long ball, but Lena [Petermann] turned it into something world class.
“She’s fought off defenders and the finish is excellent. We started the second half well and we previously spoke to Jutta [Rantala] about being a bit more selfish because we know she’s got the ability to score from distance.
“I think the goal came from a perfectly disguised pass from Sam [Tierney] and it meant we had scored two fantastic goals either side of the break, so that’s why it’s disappointing we couldn’t see the game out.”
With a Christmas break fast approaching, the Foxes now face two games in a week, first of all with a fourth away trip in a row to Leigh Sports Village in the Continental Tyres League Cup. Next weekend then sees Kirk’s side head home for the last time in 2023, welcoming West Ham United to King Power Stadium.
He added: “It’s going to be a big push before Christmas with two more games next week, but we know we’ll get a good break after it. Both games are important for different reasons.
“The first against Man Utd as we hunt for progression in the League Cup, which is still in our hands, and then West Ham at home is a must win game. We need the points to hit our desired points tally and put us into a good position to kick on in the new year.”