Kirk: Important To Get Off The Mark
- LCFC Women beat Bristol City 4-2 on Sunday
- Aimee Palmer equalised for City before half-time at Ashton Gate
- Shannon O’Brien, Lena Petermann and Jutta Rantala scored second-half goals
- Any three points in the Barclays Women’s Super League is big, says Willie Kirk
Leicester got off to a great start in the Barclays Women’s Super League with an opening day win against Bristol City, thanks to goals Shannon O’Brien and three debutants in Aimee Palmer, Lena Petermann and Jutta Rantala.
After the match, Kirk shared his thoughts with LCFC.com and was delighted to see how the Foxes responded to his half-time team talk to turn things around and cruise to victory in Bristol.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s 4-2 or 1-0, it’s just about putting in a performance we can build on and getting the three points as quickly as possible which we did today,” the manager stated. “It took us 10 games to get to this point last season.
“It was mixed emotions after the game today. You had players that were here last season that saw today’s result as a shock and others like Janice Cayman who doesn’t think too much into it. But that’s what you get when you’ve been at Lyon for four years.
“You want to develop winners like Janice but also remain humble and where we’ve come from. In the first half, we didn’t really commit to the game plan, but in the second half we certainly did, and we got our rewards from it.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Bristol City or Manchester City – three points in the WSL is tough to get. It has to be celebrated but we’ll do it in a humble way. I’m sure the fans got their money’s worth and the crowd which was excellent, so it justifies Bristol being able to play their games here (at Ashton Gate).”
Carrie Jones, who spent last season on loan with Leicester, opened the scoring for the Robins, but a fantastic strike from Palmer just before the break shifted the momentum in favour of City at a crucial point in the game.
Within 10 minutes of the restart, the Foxes had a two-goal lead and the Manager was ecstatic with having four different names on the scoresheet, and even admits that they should’ve had more, but is delighted to see his side get off the mark much earlier than last season.
He continued: “I think there could’ve been even more goals to be honest, and we could’ve profited even more on some of their mistakes but four goals, four different goalscorers is great to see and great progress.
“I was delighted for Aimee to score against her old club, and what a time to get it as well, just before the break. For a No.9, it’s always important to get off the mark and Lena did that today.
“Jutta has been threatening in pre-season and she needed that goal to boost her confidence because what a talent she is. It’s just about getting her in those positions and making things fall in place. I thought she was outstanding when she came on at half-time
“We were a little bit frustrated with a couple of things from our first-half display, so we wanted to tweak it, both in and out of possession and our changes added different attributes onto the pitch.
“It’s only three points, but it’s a big three points. It’s not perfection, it’s progress and we’ll continue to develop through the season and look to make our performances better than that, but there's lots of positives and the table and points tally will look remarkably different to last season.”