Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

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Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

LCFC Women can enter Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur with a fresh mentality, according to Sam Tierney.

2022-01-29T06:53:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

29 Jan, 2022

Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

LCFC Women can enter Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur with a fresh mentality, according to Sam Tierney.

Sam Jones

2022-01-29T06:53:00.000Z

Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

LCFC Women can enter Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur with a fresh mentality, according to Sam Tierney.

Sam Jones

2022-01-29T06:53:00.000Z

Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

LCFC Women can enter Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur with a fresh mentality, according to Sam Tierney.

Sam Jones

2022-01-29T06:53:00.000Z

Tierney: Different Competition Brings A Different Mindset

LCFC Women can enter Sunday’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur with a fresh mentality, according to Sam Tierney.

Sam Jones

2022-01-29T06:53:00.000Z

- LCFC Women meet Tottenham Hotspur in the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday- The 2pm kick-off at The Hive sees both sides enter the competition- Sam Tierney is relishing the challenge of moving focus away from the league- City reached the last eight in both 2019/20 and 2020/21

Historically a competition that Leicester have excelled in across recent years, reaching the quarter-finals two seasons running - then as a second-tier outfit - this weekend’s tie presents another opportunity to progress into the fifth round.

And as Tierney expressed while speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon, shifting focus into the tournament this campaign can be a welcome addition to the rigours of the league programme.

She also reminisced about Leicester City’s Emirates FA Cup triumph in 2020/21 and how LCFC Women can take inspiration from that historic success for the Club.

“First of all, it’s refreshing, a different mindset, a different competition,” she said during the virtual pre-match press conference. “As [Lydia] Bedford said, it’s a free hit and it probably takes a lot of pressure off that we’re feeling at the minute given our league position.

“It’s still a game that we want to win. As players, you want to win every game, regardless of what competition it is. The magic of the FA Cup, anything can happen in these games.

“I remember watching the men going on that run and credit to them. That’s why I’m here, Leicester is a club that want to win things and go places. Personally, and as a team, we want to achieve those things.

“In the FA Cup, this could be an opportunity for us to do so with no pressure. We’ll take it how it is; we’ll see how we get on and if we do enough and we progress, that’s when we can maybe start looking towards silverware a bit more.

“But, most importantly, we want to go out and we want to win. It’s making sure we get what we want in terms of looking ahead to the league now. We’re going to use it as an opportunity to put things in place that we’ve reflected on, try new things, look at different combinations.”

The Foxes sit 11th in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League as things stand, following a 2-1 reverse at home to Aston Villa. The defender is keen to bounce back from that disappointment quickly and learn from their mistakes.

The 23-year-old also revealed that the spirit within the group remains strong, even after that setback, an attitude which can help them to push forward and compete on two fronts between now and the end of the season.

Tierney continued: “It was a game that we knew was a big game and it was a real killer blow for us. The honest conversations we had… as players, we really reflected and we looked at what we want from games, how we can achieve that and it’s the fine margins in the Super League.

“It’s a massive learning curve for us as players, we’ve got mixture of players, we’ve got quite a lot of young players and a lot of experienced players. It’s just important that we learn those lessons so that the next time we are in that position, we make better decisions and hopefully a stroke of luck here and there goes our way.

“The deflection in the end was a difficult one but we go into the next games and remember how it felt losing the game there, but that’s what teams in this league have learnt over the past few years, it hurts you. Hopefully we can be better in the future.

“We keep growing and we keep learning. We’ve parked that, and we’ve started to build towards this weekend now. We took Tuesday to reflect and feel the hurt, but we go into the rest of the week, and we start to be positive again and make sure we don’t feel that again really.

“One thing I’m learning personally is that this league moves very quickly from game to game. We’ve got the cup in there this weekend but usually you only have a week to build up into your next game.

“There’s a lot of things you want to unpick and look ahead to so you can’t dwell on it. Especially in terms of an environment and momentum, you can’t be down about it.”

Analysing Sunday’s opposition, the centre-back praised Spurs’ development as a team, moving up the divisions to become an established top-flight side competing in the upper echelons of the WSL.

But City won’t be phased by the challenge of meeting one of the league’s surprise packages, she adds.

Tierney said: “I’ve looked at Tottenham for many years since they were in the Championship and throughout the Super League. Definitely this season, they’ve really pushed on, probably more than people thought they would do.

“They’ve obviously got a clear identity in how they want to play. It seems they’ve got a real togetherness as a team, but this is a team that has probably been together for a number of years now and has the Super League experience.

“We know what we are going to face, it will be a tough game, but anything can happen and, on your day, it’s your battle against theirs and it’s who wants to win it more.”

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