- LCFC Women fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Aston Villa on Sunday
- Alisha Lehmann’s injury-time winner proved the difference maker
- Abbie McManus spoke of her disappointment at the end result
- The Foxes remain 11th in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League
Following Molly Pike’s unfortunate own goal just four minutes into the match, Leicester recovered from their early setback to deliver an improved display against the Midlands outfit, drawing level with a little less than 15 minutes to play when Hannah Hampton failed to deal with Jemma Purfield’s corner.
Either side could have won it at the death, as both pushed for a winner, but it was Villa who took the final opportunity of the contest, with Alisha Lehmann converting in the 93rd-minute to steal all three points.
Providing her assessment of proceedings in Burton after the full-time whistle, stand-in skipper McManus was critical of the way the Foxes started the game, but after growing into their rhythm, felt a draw would have been a fair result.
“We’re devastated to concede like we did at the very end,” the 29-year-old defender admitted to LCFC TV. “If anything, I did think we deserved a point out of it. Our first half wasn’t good enough, but in the second half we actually arrived.
“We pressed them, we won the ball back, we caused them problems in the second half and for me it was a draw all over that game. But if you switch off like we did at the back and we concede late on, that’s what happens, and it hurts.
“I don’t think we’re going to forget this feeling and not that this feeling will motivate us, I don’t think it will, but it’ll be a lesson that we need to learn, and we need to learn fast, because obviously we need to pick up points in the league.”
A two-week gap until Leicester’s next Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture – away to Birmingham City on Sunday 6 February (2pm kick-off) – allows a period of reflection and analysis for the group, while there is also a Vitality Women’s FA Cup Fourth Round tie to look ahead to.
Lydia Bedford and the team will travel to meet Tottenham Hotspur at The Hive on Sunday (2pm kick-off), with McManus coming up against the club that she spent the second half of last season on loan at.
“We’re going to look back at the game and reflect,” the centre-back continued. “We knew ourselves that we needed to start the game well. That was our game plan to start aggressively, but we just didn’t do it. We didn’t execute what Lydia [Bedford] told us to do today.
“Second half, we finally did that and that’s what got us a goal. We started to finally cause them problems in their defence and our attack. If we had done that for 90 and not 45, it might have been a different result today, but it definitely hurts that result.
“It’s nice to come away from the league. It’s definitely not a weekend off, but to look away from the relegation battle and go into the FA Cup, it’s something everyone loves and it’s a game that we can win and we may cause an upset in, but we’ll prepare for that on Tuesday.”
All times GMT.