We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Next Match | Friday 24 April Fri 24 Apr

MIL

(H)

01 D

11 H

53 M

14 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Willie Kirk was ecstatic to see LCFC Women move off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League after a 2-1 win over Reading on Sunday.

2023-04-03T08:58:00.000Z

by Matthew Temple

Published

03 Apr, 2023

We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Willie Kirk was ecstatic to see LCFC Women move off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League after a 2-1 win over Reading on Sunday.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-03T08:58:00.000Z

We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Willie Kirk was ecstatic to see LCFC Women move off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League after a 2-1 win over Reading on Sunday.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-03T08:58:00.000Z

We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Willie Kirk was ecstatic to see LCFC Women move off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League after a 2-1 win over Reading on Sunday.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-03T08:58:00.000Z

We’ll Take Great Confidence, Says Kirk

Willie Kirk was ecstatic to see LCFC Women move off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League after a 2-1 win over Reading on Sunday.

Matthew Temple

2023-04-03T08:58:00.000Z

- LCFC Women beat Reading 2-1 at King Power Stadium- Carrie Jones scored an injury-time winner on Sunday afternoon- The win lifts the Foxes off the bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League- City are now one point ahead of Brighton & Hove Albion

Following defeat on the road to Aston Villa last week, the Foxes returned home to King Power Stadium in search of three points against Reading, which was achieved in the most dramatic of fashions.

Carrie Jones’ 96th-minute winner sent the Leicester faithful into rapture, after Sam Tierney’s opener was cancelled out by Charlie Wellings just before the break. Following the match, the manager composed himself to describe his emotions to LCFC TV.

“I thought the players were outstanding,” Kirk stated. “You say I'm the man responsible for that, but those women are the people responsible for that. I thought they were brilliant, from the first minute to the last.

“Three times we've been ahead of Reading this year, and obviously it happened for the fourth time today, and they pegged us back again. But obviously the fifth time was the most important one.

“I think that we're at our best when we attack, and we've not always done that because to do that, you need to have belief. And when you're sitting bottom of the league, it's not easy to have belief. It's a natural thing just to take a step back rather than a step forward because you want to protect rather than attack.

“But we've worked hard this week. We had a special guest in yesterday to speak to us. Wes Morgan passed on some valuable experience from the Great Escape when the men's team did it. I think all those little things played a part in it.”

Holding off until the 82nd minute to make a first substitution showed the desire from the players to get the win across the line, and the former Everton manager was delighted to see the willingness from everyone to keep fighting until the end.

“It was actually really difficult to make substitutions because nobody looked tired and nobody was having a bad game,” Kirk continued. “But even the energy the subs brought, I could feel it behind me. I'm sure the players could feel it in the crowd. It was an excellent day.

“I heard Shannon [O'Brien] speak about saying, 'we've done nothing yet' and we've not. We've come off the bottom of the table for the first time this season. I think that's massive in terms of players' confidence and belief in what we're trying to do.

“We will take great confidence from moving off the bottom. But we understand there's a lot of hard work to do. A really important factor this year is that we've had a lot of injuries this year, but slowly but surely players are coming back from injury, and you know it's only a matter of time before Shannon is back as well. And that'll be another big boost for us.”

Another positive from the afternoon was striker Jess Sigsworth making her first appearance for the Club since suffering a cruciate ligament injury back in February 2022, and the manager was happy to see her positiveness back among the team.

He added: “Not a lot of players want Jess in a full contact session because she's quite aggressive, but that's her, she trains the way she plays, and Jess gave us a big boost today, and regardless of getting on the pitch or not, just being back in the matchday squad was a boost for her, but everybody else as well, because they know the impact she can have.

“I think what Reading have shown consistently as they've come back from being goals down, they did it last week when they were 2-0 down against Brighton, which was a big point. That was always the danger and we've seen it in the first half.

“I expected the game to be end-to-end, and I thought both teams would just try and go for the three points rather than settle for one. I think we could certainly feel the momentum and I said that to the players.

“Reading had their moments where they managed to get on top of us for a couple of minutes and get up the pitch, but I think for the majority, we were on top of them.”

LATEST HEADLINES

London City vs. LCFC Women: Tickets & Coverage Our Barclays WSL campaign resumes this Sunday (12pm kick-off) when we make the trip to CopperJax Community Stadium to face London City Lionesses, in search of valuable points.

6 Mins Ago

Chairman Statement: Leicester City Relegated To League One Following confirmation of Leicester City’s relegation to League One, Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has issued the following statement:

21 Apr, 2026

Foxes Relegated To League One After Hull Draw We have been relegated to Sky Bet League One following Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Hull City at King Power Stadium.

21 Apr, 2026

Team News: Leicester City vs. Hull City Gary Rowett has named his Leicester City side for tonight's encounter with Hull City in the Sky Bet Championship.

21 Apr, 2026

LATEST PHOTOS

Leicester City 2 Hull City 2

21 Apr, 2026

Hull Preparations In Seagrave A look at Monday's training session at LCFC Training Ground as our encounter with Hull City nears.

20 Apr, 2026

Portsmouth 1 Leicester City 0 Match imagery from our Sky Bet Championship clash with Pompey on the South Coast.

18 Apr, 2026

City's Pompey Preparations In Focus Imagery from Seagrave as the Foxes prepare for the trip to Portsmouth in the Sky Bet Championship this weekend.

16 Apr, 2026