Kirk: End The Year On A High

Next Match | Friday 24 April Fri 24 Apr

MIL

(H)

01 D

00 H

16 M

14 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

Kirk: End The Year On A High

LCFC Women face West Ham United this weekend in their final fixture of 2023 and Willie Kirk is hoping to get back to winning ways at King Power Stadium.

2023-12-17T08:46:00.000Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

17 Dec, 2023

Kirk: End The Year On A High

LCFC Women face West Ham United this weekend in their final fixture of 2023 and Willie Kirk is hoping to get back to winning ways at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-12-17T08:46:00.000Z

Kirk: End The Year On A High

LCFC Women face West Ham United this weekend in their final fixture of 2023 and Willie Kirk is hoping to get back to winning ways at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-12-17T08:46:00.000Z

Kirk: End The Year On A High

LCFC Women face West Ham United this weekend in their final fixture of 2023 and Willie Kirk is hoping to get back to winning ways at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-12-17T08:46:00.000Z

Kirk: End The Year On A High

LCFC Women face West Ham United this weekend in their final fixture of 2023 and Willie Kirk is hoping to get back to winning ways at King Power Stadium.

Matthew Temple

2023-12-17T08:46:00.000Z

City haven’t seen victory since the opening month when they beat Everton 1-0 on Filbert Way; now up against bottom-placed West Ham in the Barclays Women’s Super League, the Foxes sense an opportunity to take their points tally into double figures.

Kirk spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s match, and here are the key talking points…

Reflecting on the Man Utd defeat

Midweek action saw Leicester lose out to Manchester United in the Continental Tyres League Cup as an Aileen Whelan goal in the first half enough wasn’t enough to prevent the Foxes suffering a 3-1 defeat.

Beaten by a formidable opponent, Kirk shared his analysis of the game, and hopes that they can take learnings from the fixture into Sunday afternoon.

“I felt we never really got any foothold in the game,” Kirk explained. “Conceding early on didn’t help us as we were behind from the start and created an uphill battle.

“I thought we did well to work our way back into it and be close behind at half-time which gave us an opportunity to try and create something in the second half, but we weren’t able to generate any fluidity to our performance.

“Man Utd were good on the night and we did well to hang in there and make sure the game didn’t completely run away from us but we got everyone through safely which is the main thing because we’re a stretched squad at the minute.”

The mood in camp

Despite not seeing a win since October, the City camp remains positive, having picked up points against the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion, but the Manager is aware of the current winless run and hopes to rectify that.

“I think we’ve got what we deserve to be honest,” Kirk voiced. “If you throw away a two-goal lead against Brighton then you don’t deserve the three points, and I’m not going to hide behind that.

“We’ve got to do better in those situations and learn from it. Everybody wants to get onto Sunday now and win those three points and get a good home victory in front of our fans.

“Hopefully we’ll be eating our Christmas dinner in the top half of the table, on 12 points from 10 games which will be nine more than last year, so that shows big progress, but we want to keep improving.”

Going into the break on a high

The year of 2023 has been one of development for Leicester, who started the year with a 3-0 win over Brighton – a first of the Kirk regime. Now keen to end it on a similar note, the former Everton manager is proud of how far his team have come.

The 45-year-old added: “It’s important that we give ourselves a good platform moving into the second half of the season because the second half is looking exciting.

“We’ll have Shannon O’Brien back. Deanne Rose and CJ Bott will also be back. We’ve already signed Saori Takarada so it’s exciting times in January where we might add another one or two hopefully.

“I’ve always said we’ll be better in the second half of the season, and I firmly believe that, and we’ll need to put that into action very soon, starting with a good result this weekend against West Ham.”

LATEST HEADLINES

PL2 Play-Offs Explained As Last-16 Opponents Revealed City’s Under-21s side have reached the Premier League 2 Play-Offs, where we will face Tottenham Hotspur away tomorrow (7pm kick-off).

2 Hours 46 Mins Ago

Live Coverage Of Millwall Clash Foxes Hub will provide a live stream of City's Sky Bet Championship fixture against Millwall, with audio and video available depending on your location.

3 Hours 18 Mins Ago

James ‘Unlikely To Start’ Against Millwall, Says Rowett Gary Rowett provided an update on Jordan James after the midfielder limped off in our 2-2 draw with Hull City on Tuesday.

4 Hours 53 Mins Ago

Fan Zone Open Ahead Of Millwall Game Our Fan Zone will be open on Friday night ahead of our Sky Bet Championship fixture against Millwall at King Power Stadium.

8 Hours 13 Mins Ago