- LCFC Women tackle Arsenal in Sunday’s WSL clash at King Power Stadium
- The 12:30pm kick-off sees title-chasing Arsenal face 11th-place Leicester
- Sam Tierney says City must display their fighting spirit after a tough week
- The fans’ continued support serves to drive the players on, she adds
The final four games of 2021/22 include matches against Manchester City, Reading and Tottenham Hotspur, but before then it’s Arsenal up next for the Foxes at King Power Stadium on Sunday (12:30pm kick-off).
City are aiming to avoid beginning April as they ended March, defeated 9-0 by another title challenger, Chelsea, on Filbert Way. Tierney believes the squad have put the right practices in place to quickly learn from their mistakes.
The versatile defender commented: “The only way you can move on from that is just to be completely honest with yourselves and reflect as properly as you can. There is no way we can dwell on it, we said that.
“We had very mixed emotions going off the back of that game into the Monday. But as soon as we came in on Tuesday, Lydia got us into a meeting and there was nothing to come from having a go at us, we all know and understand it was not good enough by any stretch of the imagination.
“Obviously that’s something we want the fans to know. We are very disappointed that we performed like that, but at the end of the day, we had to have a constructive meeting, we had to find solutions and that’s what this week has been about really.”
Currently occupying 11th place in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, the eight-point buffer built up by Leicester to Birmingham City at the foot of the table remains intact, though there is a clear target to push forward rather than look down between now and the season’s conclusion.
“We know what we have to do in the games coming up,” the 23-year-old continued. “It’s having that fight and that desire to push ourselves through the last few games. The good thing about football is that you’ve got another game around the corner to make it right.
“We’ve got fire in our bellies now that we want to go out there and prove that [the Chelsea result] isn’t us and put things in action. I think the bottom line is that we need to work harder, we need to be harder to beat and we need to start putting our authority on games.
“I’m very passionate about the Club, I’m passionate about my performances and how it reflects the badge that I wear. I try not to dwell on it too much. I reflected very thoroughly off the back of it, but there’s a game coming up and we know how important the games are that we’ve got left to finish the job that we want to finish. We’ll go out there and we’ll give everything for the final few games.”
Arsenal may be clear favourites given their standing in the league, but that won’t stop Tierney, who is the only LCFC Women player to start all 18 of their WSL fixtures this term, heading into the fixture with a positive mindset.
She explained: “It’s a game that, even before last Sunday’s result, people probably wouldn’t have had us down to get anything from. There’s no pressure on it other than what we want to achieve from it and how hard we want to be to break down.
“We have to understand that Arsenal have different priorities for the game. They’ve obviously got some heavy fixtures, they are in a title race, and for them, every game is just as important as it is for us.
"We’ll go out there with the mindset that we can work hard and we can make it a difficult game for them. We won’t fear them and hopefully come 3 o’clock on Sunday, we’ll be in a better position.”
Once again over 2,000 supporters were in attendance on Filbert Way against Chelsea and the ex-Sheffield United star credited the Blue Army’s backing throughout the campaign as a central part of their debut year in the division. She has no doubt it will continue on Sunday.
She added: “One thing I’d like to say is how proud I was to see they all supported us, regardless of what was going on. And that really didn’t go unnoticed. Obviously, as players, it’s difficult coming off that result to show your appreciation, because you are going through a whirlwind of emotions.
“But their support was unbelievable, and it has been for the whole all season. We do say it all the time, but we do need them, and we do hear them, so we hope that we can get a big turnout again on Sunday and help us push and work hard.”