‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

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‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

LCFC Women face a trip to Bristol City on the opening day of the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season and manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to the test versus his old employers.

2023-07-21T12:23:00.000Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

21 Jul, 2023

‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

LCFC Women face a trip to Bristol City on the opening day of the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season and manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to the test versus his old employers.

Matthew Temple

2023-07-21T12:23:00.000Z

‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

LCFC Women face a trip to Bristol City on the opening day of the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season and manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to the test versus his old employers.

Matthew Temple

2023-07-21T12:23:00.000Z

‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

LCFC Women face a trip to Bristol City on the opening day of the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season and manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to the test versus his old employers.

Matthew Temple

2023-07-21T12:23:00.000Z

‘Excitement’s Building’ Following WSL Fixture Release Says Kirk

LCFC Women face a trip to Bristol City on the opening day of the 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League season and manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to the test versus his old employers.

Matthew Temple

2023-07-21T12:23:00.000Z

- The 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League fixtures were released on Tuesday morning- LCFC Women face newly-promoted Bristol City on Sunday 1 October- The fixture will be played at Ashton Gate

On Tuesday morning, the schedule ahead of the new WSL campaign was released, revealing that newly-promoted Bristol City would host Leicester on the opening day at Ashton Gate.

Following the public release of the fixtures, the manager shared his initial reactions towards facing his former side come the start of the season in October.

“Every season, it’s an exciting day when the fixtures get released,” Kirk told LCFC.com. “We get a bit of an insight into what to expect. It makes it feel real, and you start getting that vision of what’s to come.

“We’ll be travelling to Bristol on the opening day, playing at Ashton Gate, which has a great surface and it will have really interesting mental dynamics around it because, as we know, we went into most games last year as the underdog – but now, we’re starting the season as favourites in our first game.”

Last season’s winner of the Barclays Women's Championship, the Scotsman believes The Robins will prove a tough test, as they arrive to the WSL off the back of a great season, but is confident of his side’s ability to start strongly.

“I think Bristol City will be in the favoured position that they have nothing to lose,” Kirk continued. “But we’re in a favoured position that we won on the final day of last season, and we’re looking to improve in every aspect this coming campaign.

“By the time the game comes around, it won’t be about playing a newly-promoted team, but instead a team who is your competition for 90 minutes. It will be a hard game because every game in the WSL is difficult.”

With 10 weeks until the new league commences, Kirk states that the fixture release will not have a big impact on the pre-season schedule until the final stages before the trip to Bristol.

With the 2023 Women’s World Cup scheduled before City play their first game, the 44-year-old is focused on getting his players back into Belvoir Drive, and getting up to speed as he is determined to improve on last season’s tenth-placed finish.

He added: “We have our pre-season plan and that will stay the same; nothing really changes until the last week where you start to focus on tweaking things based on the individual gameplan.

“The performances got better and better as last season went on, and a lot of positivity came from our results at King Power Stadium. The last game against Everton (who Leicester will host on Sunday 8 October) at home was an entertaining one – it could’ve gone either way.

“They’re a top team, which will prove a difficult task, but it’ll be exciting and I’m looking forward to the challenge and seeing some familiar faces that I used to work with (at Everton).

The Foxes have two home games either side of the Christmas break, against West Ham in December before welcoming Aston Villa in January. Kirk tells us that plans are already in place for the five-week festive break, but understands this could change dependent on the first 10 games.

“We’ve already got a plan in place, in terms of what our Christmas break will be like," the former Everton manager explained. "And I like to think that’ll stay the same regardless of how we do in the first 10 games before that point.

“Being home or away doesn’t make a massive difference to us, we’ll always look to play our brand of football, but it’s nice to know we’ll have the backing of our fans when we return in 2024.”

City conclude their season on Filbert Way in May against Liverpool. Taking six points from six last season, the manager is hoping to conclude the campaign in fashion, in front of their own fans, playing the team they recorded their biggest ever WSL win against in April of last year.

“I always like to finish with a home game,” Kirk commented. “Because it’s a way of thanking the fans – it closes the season in your own territory, and we have good memories of playing Liverpool at King Power Stadium last season, so we’ll be looking forward to that.”

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