- LCFC Women travel to Sunderland in the Continental Tyres League Cup this Thursday evening (7:30pm kick-off)
- The Foxes then have a quick turnaround as they face Liverpool in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Sunday
- The squad trust in each other’s ability, says Sophie Howard, speaking in the pre-match press conference
- Tickets for the cup game against Sunderland can be found HERE
PLEASE NOTE: THIS GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO FREEZING CONDITIONS.
Heading into a busy four-day period which will consist of two away games in as many competitions, Howard spoke to the media, giving an insight into the squad’s morale ahead of the trip to tackle the Black Cats at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground.
An 8-0 defeat to Chelsea is difficult for any footballer to overcome, but the centre-half explains how this is something the Foxes must do, should they hope to turn fortunes around when facing Liverpool back in the Barclays Women's Super League on Sunday.
“This isn’t where we wanted to be at the start of the season,” she said during Tuesday's pre-match press conference. “But it’s what we must deal with. We’ll focus on what we can control, such as our performances going forward. We look ahead, and not what’s behind us.
“We must be honest with ourselves, otherwise we’ll never learn from it. We knew Saturday would be a tough day, but we need to adjust our performance which we know wasn’t good enough and move on.
“It’s about trusting in the process. [Willie] Kirk has outlined the style he wants to play, but if you don’t hit it right, you’ll get punished, like we did against Chelsea, who exploited key areas. However, we’ll keep working on our performances and hopefully you’ll see that going forward.”
Still on the hunt for their first league points of the season, the defender spoke about her experience in similar positions, and that the spirit of the team cannot waver, should they want to be successful in their mission.
The Scotland international explained: “We showed it last year, and we’ll show it this year that we do believe in one another. At times we haven’t performed well enough or got the points we deserved but if you don’t keep clean sheets or score goals then you’re not going to get results.
“The biggest thing now is the graft which we need to put in. We need to give 120 per cent every single day. We realise we’re in a relegation battle, I don’t think that’s a secret, but we must trust the process.
“There’s been a lot of changes in terms of personal (since the promotion to the WSL in 2021), but who we are as people hasn’t.
“We’re part of Leicester City and it takes a certain type of person to be part of this Club. We need every single person to be with us, as we know we’ll only get out of it by sticking together.
“In terms of building consistency, this week is massive. We don’t take the cup lightly, we know Thursday will be a massive game to replicate how we want to play in games, and we’ll use it as an opportunity to implement what we’ve been working on in training, to put things right.”
Aware that Leicester have had the unfortunate luck of conceding late on in previous games, Howard states that they must be disciplined for the entirety of the game, should they want to build the desired level of performances.
The former Reading defender added: “The biggest thing is to not overthink the fact we’ve conceded late goals. Yes, we are aware it has happened a couple of times. But if you focus on it, then it becomes a fear.
“We’ll focus on our game as a whole because if you don’t stay in the game for the 85 minutes, then the last five minutes are irrelevant. You see in our games how we don’t give up.
There are areas that have led to our downfall at times, but our fight and graft has not been the reason. Our goal is to build consistency and momentum within our game, and that’s what we’ll keep working to do.”
All times GMT.