London Bees Triumph Built On Hard Work, Says Morgan

LCFC Women
08 Mar 2021
2 Minutes
LCFC Women's clinical nature was the most pleasing aspect of Sunday's 7-0 win at London Bees for manager Jonathan Morgan.

- LCFC Women's 7-0 victory over London Bees at The Hive Stadium delighted manager Jonathan Morgan
- He praised the team's goalscoring prowess as they swept aside the London outfit
- The dominant Foxes performance included two goals from January signing Shannon O'Brien and a stunning strike from Esmee De Graaf
- It maintains Leicester's position at the top of the league table following nine consecutive wins

Recording their biggest margin of victory since the 9-1 success over Coventry United in November, the Foxes came away from The Hive Stadium with three points and a clean sheet to ensure they remain top of the FA Women's Championship.

A superb long-range effort from Esmee De Graaf rounded off the scoring in Barnet and Morgan felt that finish was just one example of how the work being put in on the training pitch during the week is paying off for the league leaders.

"We worked a lot in training this week and we said to the girls that we wanted to be ruthless," Morgan commented in his post-match interview with LCFC TV. "In the last few games we've made a lot of chances but have not really been putting them away.

"We put a lot of challenges in place this week to get us a little bit more accurate and a little bit more efficient in front of goal. I think we've done that fantastically with seven goals.

It took us a bit longer to break them down than we anticipated. Once Millie [Farrow] got the first goal, you saw how the pressure lifted off us and I think that's when our quality really showed.

Jonathan Morgan LCFC TV

"Esmee's goal shows you how hard we've been working but also how much it meant to the girls to win by a big margin to show that we deserve it and that we're working hard together.

"We were working on that on a one-to-one basis, but it was a brilliant strike and she's been working very hard behind the scenes to get in more goalscoring opportunities and, today, it obviously paid off."

City had to wait until the 41st minute for Millie Farrow's well-taken opener, but after they had broken the deadlock, the goals started to flow, including three in a whirlwind five-minute spell.

Shannon O'Brien scored two of those - her first two goals for the Club since signing from Coventry United - and Morgan was thrilled to see the 19-year-old make a difference when she came on.

"In fairness to London Bees they were very stubborn in the first 30 minutes of the game," he continued, crediting the opposition for their early work to thwart the Foxes. "They were quite deep, very compact.

"We anticipated that and we set up in a way to try and exploit that, but it took us a bit longer to break them down than we anticipated. Once Millie got the first goal, you saw how the pressure lifted off us and I think that's when our quality really showed.

"Six goals followed and I think all of them were just fantastic goals today. It's brilliant, it seems to be a lot of firsts over the last couple of weeks and for Shannon to get her first two goals was brilliant.

"She works so hard, she brings something completely different to the team and the squad and we're delighted that we did get her from Coventry in the January window. I think she thoroughly deserved it from how hard she's worked so far."