- Sam Tierney spoke following LCFC Women’s first win of the campaign
- The Foxes defeated Birmingham City 2-0 in a crucial encounter on Filbert Way
- After moving off the bottom of the WSL, Tierney expressed her pride in the team
- The defender scored the second goal after Sophie Howard’s first-half opener
The Foxes recorded a deserved 2-0 home success on Sunday afternoon, lifting them off the bottom of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table and handing new manager Lydia Bedford her first win in charge at the second attempt.
It was also LCFC Women’s maiden victory in the league season and the 23-year-old believes the psychological boost that will provide heading into the Christmas break is important for morale and confidence.
Tierney told LCFC TV: “It’s incredible, a huge relief for us as a team. You could see from the girls at full-time, how excited we were about that and just how proud we were of how far we’ve come.
“It’s a tough league but this is the building block for us now, this is the start and hopefully that message goes wider and people watching can understand that we’re not a team to take lightly.
“These games, I personally think, are harder than playing the big teams. We’ve got a few girls in here that have experienced these types of games. The message before was that everyone was aware of the importance of this game.
“But we knew, if we took the game to them, on our own pitch, with our home fans, we could get a result, we were confident of that. I’d like to think that we showed that we’re a lot more attacking today.”
The defender felt the key difference was how the team performed in both boxes, able to find the net on two occasions, while keeping Birmingham out at the other end, something they had not previously managed to achieve in the top-flight.
Leicester were also able to use home advantage to get over the line, backed by the majority of the 2,124 supporters on Filbert Way, on what could have been a nervy day as the bottom two sides faced off.
“We were more of a threat,” she continued. “But there’s always moments in games like that when momentum swings, so it was a good game, but most importantly we got the three points.
“[The support] is unbelievable. When you walk out of the tunnel, you can feel it, you can hear it. In games like this, there’s moments where you have to ride the wave and to be honest, they help us through this.
“It’s a credit to them for sticking by us. We’ve been saying the results are coming, but sometimes it’s hard to believe that. Thanks to them for coming on this cold day and hopefully we can have many more moments like that together.”
A goal in each half, firstly from Sophie Howard and then Tierney herself, allowed the Foxes to emerge victorious and the former Sheffield United defender was full of praise for her team-mates’ strike, before also talking through her own effort – another first of the season – heading home Molly Pike’s corner.
“It was unbelievable (from Sophie),” she beamed. “We’ve been doing a lot of finishing in small-sided games and, to be honest, when it went in, I just had to stand a little bit in awe because that’s how you do it.
“I’m really proud of Soph today, I thought she played really well, as a lot of the girls did. I thought we had a lot of chances. On another day, hopefully we’d be putting them away, but it's a great day.
“To be honest, I was moving out of the way so Abs (Abbie McManus) could get it, she wanted me to run forward, so I thought I’d leave her the space. I looked around and no one else was there!
“I back myself in those areas, I think I’ve scored a few of those in my career, so most importantly I was thinking if I could get a goal, it gives us a bit of time to relax, a bit of confidence.
“After that, we controlled the game and didn’t really look like conceding at that point, so I’m really proud to be able to play a part. Hopefully I can get many more now.”