London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips says that this weekend’s opponents Sheffield United are a team who are defensively resolute and that her side must be clinical with the chances that come their way.
The Pride travel to Bramall Lane to take on The Blades in their latest FA Women’s Championship fixture on Sunday afternoon.
Sheffield United are undefeated in their last six league outings while they have the fifth-best defensive record in the FA Women’s Championship this season. When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time in her pre-match press conference, Phillips said that she is expecting a tough game against a resolute and well-organised Sheffield United team.
“When we played Sheffield United at home, it was only a 1-0 game scored off a set piece,” Phillips said. “They are always defensively resolute and they are difficult to break down, I think a lot of their games have been 0-0 or they’ve had clean sheets this year with their unbeaten run.
“We know that it’ll be a tough task and we will have to be clinical in the chances that we create to break them down but we are confident in ourselves, how far we have come so far this year and with our goalscoring capabilities.
“They pose a very different challenge that we have faced before against the likes of Sunderland maybe that their attacking transition is very good. They have some pace on the counter, they come at you with numbers and they have a very clear identity themselves.
“We know that it’ll be a challenge and it’ll be a tightly-contested match but we are looking forward to testing ourselves on the road again.”
Against two tough opponents in Bristol City and Liverpool, London City Lionesses have managed to collect just one point. Phillips went on to discuss the fine line between success and failure in the FA Women’s Championship.
She said “You look at the two recent games where we dropped points and it’s really fine margins. We walked away from those games really quite confident in the performances that we put out on the Sunday but unfortunately, we didn’t come away with the result.
“It is fine margins that define the league and the difference between top spot and second or third place. We know that we are not far off and we have lots of areas to continue to grow and build upon and that’s what we remain focused to do in the remainder of the season.”
London City Lionesses’ FA Women’s Championship fixture at Sheffield United kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday.