Women: London City Lionesses Preview - Jan 9

Watford are back in FA Women’s Championship action this Sunday, as the Golden Girls host London City Lionesses at Kings Langley FC in their first game of 2022 (3pm KO).

With the season at the halfway stage, it marks the beginning of the second half of the campaign for the Hornets, with the team now looking to move up the league table.

The first opportunity to get more points on the board will be against a strong London City side, who are currently third in the standings.

It was an incredibly close encounter when the two teams met in the reverse fixture, with a late comeback seeing the Lionesses narrowly prevail 2-1.

Fan Guide

We’ve put together a guide for the upcoming match with all of the information you’ll need ahead of your trip to Kings Langley.

This can be found here. We look forward to welcoming you to The Orbital Fasteners Stadium.

Views from the Interim Head Coach

With Clinton Lancaster having left the club last month, there’ll be a new man in charge for this weekend’s fixture.

Gifton Noel-Williams has been involved with the Golden Girls in a coaching capacity for the last few months - the ex-Watford player will now step up and take on the Head Coach responsibilities.

“The last couple of weeks have been really good,” he told watfordfc.com. “I’ve been able to get to know the players and staff more and it’s been interesting – going into the transfer window, looking for players and going through that process, it’s been fun.

“The squad has a lot of talent and a lot of young players who are just trying to find their way. If you can get the right blend, I think that there’s a lot of talent in the squad and I’m looking forward to working with the group more and to share my ideas with them.

“Hopefully we’ll come into an understanding of how we want to play and how we want to defend. I know it’ll take time, but I’m enjoying it so far.”

After three weeks without a match over the Christmas and New Year period, the team have had time to refresh and prepare for the start of the second half of the season, beginning with London City at home.

“Well, I hope they are refreshed and raring to go!” Noel-Williams exclaimed. “No, they are, I think the little break they had over Christmas has probably done them well.

“They’ve come back and everyone is buzzing and happy, I’m seeing smiles on players’ faces when they’re playing, so that’s the beginning and now we’ll go from there. I’m sure they can’t wait to get on the pitch and get 90 minutes in their legs.

“I’m expecting to play against a fit, aggressive, fast and quite direct team. They’ll put the pressure on you and wear you down, keep putting the ball forward, plugging away and picking up second balls – doing all the basics very well.”

With it being the first match in charge for Noel-Williams, there’s no doubting that there’ll be new ideas he’ll be implementing. Entertaining Golden Girls’ fans will be one of his philosophies.

“There’s only so much you can do in a short space of time,” he explained. “So for me, it’s more about seeing the girls play with a smile on their face and with freedom.

“We have a lot of good players in the squad, a lot of players who have got plenty of experience in football, having played at different levels. They can bring that experience out, give them some ownership where they’re in charge of their destination a little bit.

“My plan is to just give them some structure and a way of how we’re going to attack and how we’re going to defend, and the rest is down to them for the most part.

“I don’t have the luxury of having a pre-season under your belt, where you can really go through things and make mistakes, having that time to get the right personnel and formation in, so it’s straight into it.

“It’s just trying to break down what I want from them, bit by bit, so hopefully within the next two-to-three games, we have a full understanding, but from the work we’ve done so far, I believe that the players have a good idea of what I’m expecting from them.

“Hopefully it’ll be high energy, lots of chances, lots of attacking and that there’s something for the fans to leave with a story, regardless of the result. Something to talk about the game, some form of excitement and something that was really good from us. It should be a good game.”

Opposition

London City Lionesses were founded in May 2019, when they took over the licence to compete in the FA Women’s Championship that was previously held by Millwall Lionesses.

The Lionesses are an independent club, and also professional. Since their formation, they have firmly established themselves as a strong side in the second tier of women’s football.

Although their debut campaign at this level would be curtailed due to the pandemic, they certainly showed what they were capable of in the shortened season, finishing fourth on a points per game basis.

Their tally of 26 points in 2019/20 wouldn’t be matched in the following full season. London City ended up in sixth place, with a 6-6-8 record. They were incredibly stingy defensively though, not even allowing a goal per game on average.

A strong defensive record is something that is still very much in place this campaign, with them being one of only two sides to have conceded fewer goals than matches played.

They got off to the perfect start on the opening day, winning 1-0 away at Liverpool, inflicting what is currently the Reds’ only league defeat of the season so far. That was then backed up by a home victory against Crystal Palace.

A spell of one point from the next two matches followed, before going on a run of form that saw them win four out of five. Although they lost their last Championship game against Charlton Athletic, they’ve put themselves in a good position for the second half of the campaign – lying in third place at the moment.

It’s not just the league they’ve impressed in, they can count themselves very unfortunate to not have progressed in the Continental Tyres League Cup, taking a couple of WSL scalps in the group stages.

Rianna Jarrett is their top scorer this season with five goals, however they possess threats throughout the team, with those in the squad on the scoresheet in 2021/22 already reaching double figures.

One noticeable stat is the consistency of their selection - they’ve only used 17 players in the Championship all campaign, which is the fewest in the division. Four of their squad have also played every minute in the league.

The Hornets have a couple of London City’s former players on their books, with both Flo Fyfe and Ylenia Priest having previously played for Sunday’s opponents.