Morgan: There Will Be No Mentality Change
- LCFC Women will go in search of a ninth successive league win when they face London Bees at The Hive Stadium this Sunday
- Manager Jonathan Morgan spoke to the media in his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon
- He has challenged the team to be more clinical in front of goal this weekend
- A 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace last time out kept the Foxes at the top of the FA Women's Championship table
The Foxes visit the Hive Stadium on an eight-match winning streak in the FA Women's Championship, continued thanks to last weekend's 1-0 success over Crystal Palace.
Playing a league fixture for the first time in six weeks, Hannah Cain scored the only goal of the game as City maintained their position at the top of the table.
Reflecting on the game, Morgan believes it was an important victory in order to maintain the momentum, ahead of another tough test against the Bees.
“It was a fantastic moment for us as a club to get the victory first and foremost," the LCFC Women manager said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon. "It showed the girls were ready for the game.
"We want to take that momentum into the London Bees game at the weekend by creating that amount of chances, but taking them and making sure that we take them early rather than keeping it on a knife edge.
"I was pleased with how they stayed focused and switched on for 90 minutes, because if you give Palace a chance, they normally score. But we're now solely focused on London Bees.
"One thing I'm hoping that will help us for this part [of the season] is our squad depth, we have a lot of good girls. We were able to make three changes to the starting XI (against Crystal Palace).
"Remi [Allen] had a little bit of a knock and she's now back fighting fit ready for Sunday. We showed that we could change our formation and for people to come in and step up the way they did, I think it will give us the edge."
Cain's 36th-minute strike proved to be the difference in Quorn last weekend, scoring on her home debut following a lengthy lay-off due to a foot injury. Speaking about her return to the side, Morgan praised the forward's mentality to come back from what was a difficult spell on the sidelines.
He said: "You could see from the goal that we scored from Hannah, the way they celebrated showed such a togetherness there with the team. Everybody was proud of her.
"It was an 11-month ordeal for Hannah with her injury. She’s worked hard behind the scenes, she's done a lot of work that nobody externally has seen and we were not worried about putting her into that starting XI.
"She's had a great attitude towards the situation, she's worked hard, she's rehabbed hard and she's given us a different option, especially in the attacking sense. It's just really pleasing that she got that goal and it's something she deserved. I've now got to find ways to motivate her to push her on to the next level."
London Bees currently sit 10th in the standings, having taken eight points from their 16 games and are searching for a first win in seven, a run that began with a 3-0 defeat by the Foxes in Quorn.
However, Morgan is well aware of the threat that Sian Osmond's side could pose, particularly given their position in the table as they look to pull themselves away from the relegation zone.
Goals: LCFC Women 3 London Bees 0
Three brilliant goals from a convincing victory that sent the Foxes top of the FA Women's Championship.
"Like everyone else, they're a fantastic team," Morgan said of Sunday's opponents. "They're struggling at the other end of the table, but that's probably more dangerous for us. They've got everything to fight for, they are looking for survival.
"We're not going to take them lightly. We also know that we have to be professional and efficient to dispatch them this weekend. We are going there to look for a win. We are going there to play a very strong game and play our normal game, but we're not going to be taking them for granted.
"We've worked hard this week in training and we've worked on a few little bit where we think we can exploit them tactically. We're going to look to go and do that and hopefully score a few goals in the process.
"I want us to be ruthless this weekend. If we have opportunities to score more goals, we want to take full advantage of that. London Bees are going to be set up strong and they are going to be set up ready to defend.
"We've always played an attacking style of football, we've always played a high intensity style, which teams have struggled against this season. We're just going to do the same again. There will be no mentality change, it's just more about doing more of the same."