A Gutsy Display Despite Defeat, Says Bedford
- LCFC Women were beaten 4-0 by Arsenal at Meadow Park on Sunday
- Two goals in each half secured three points for the league leaders
- Lydia Bedford gave her reaction to the defeat in her first game in charge
- She was proud of the team’s efforts after being reduced to 10 players
It was always going to be a tough challenge for the Foxes to claim their first points of the season against the side at the very top of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League standings and so it proved with the Gunners racing into a two-goal advantage.
Jordan Nobbs opened the scoring midway through the first period, before Vivianne Miedema doubled the lead and put Jonas Eidevall’s side in control. The task became even more of an uphill battle ahead of the break when Jemma Purfield was shown a straight red card for bringing down Nikita Parris.
Assessing the difficult challenge Leicester faced at Meadow Park, Bedford told LCFC TV that she was pleased with the character shown once the team went down to 10 players, limiting Arsenal’s attacking play until a late brace from Frida Maanum added gloss to the scoreline for the hosts.
“I think they were gutsy; they were resilient, and they worked really hard,” City’s manager commented. “I think that second half is a great example of the togetherness that the group is starting to bring. They worked really hard for each other and I’m proud of what they’ve done on the pitch.
“Anyone who watched that second half saw that the two goals came right towards the end and for a large chunk of that second half, with 10 players, they’ve kept Arsenal at bay.
“I’m really pleased with the work rate and the performance that the girls put in. They did everything tonight for each other and I think that showed in what they’ve done on the pitch.”
Bedford’s first game in charge came less than a week after officially taking the reins and she saw signs of promise in parts of the performance that can be built on in the coming weeks.
The 34-year-old explained: “Across this week, we’ve said it’s about bringing a little bit more confidence to the girls when we’ve got the ball. I think tonight they’ve shown in little snippets that when they got on it, they could build with each other and we created a few opportunities in the second half, which I was really pleased to see.
“One of the big things is seeing them play with a back four. It was not by design, by default, but actually that’s really shown us that there’s potential for us to tweak and change formations as we go through the season, which is pleasing.”
A ninth league defeat of the season leaves City at the foot of the table, though with two big games coming up, against Manchester City in the League Cup, before entertaining Birmingham City in the WSL on Sunday, there’s plenty to concentrate on when they return to training this week.
“They’ll pick themselves up,” Bedford added. “They are obviously disappointed with the result, no one wants to lose a game of football, but they know that this week we’ve got the midweek game and the Birmingham game, they know the Birmingham one is our biggest focus, so there will be rotations come Wednesday.
“They’ve got an opportunity to get back on the grass this week and be together and build towards that. They seem in a good place; they’ll be hurting a little bit tonight, but I’m confidence they will back with us on Tuesday raring to go.”