FA Cup ‘a nice diversion’ for Leicester City says manager Kirk | OneFootball

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·29 January 2023

FA Cup ‘a nice diversion’ for Leicester City says manager Kirk

Article image:FA Cup ‘a nice diversion’ for Leicester City says manager Kirk

Leicester City manager Willie Kirk believes that the Vitality Women’s FA Cup can be a positive distraction for his side.

The Foxes begin their participation in this season’s competition with a fourth round tie against Reading at The Pirelli Stadium this afternoon.

Leicester City are currently bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table and have some huge battles ahead to secure their top tier status for another year. The club now have to balance their league commitments with domestic cup participation but manager Kirk believes that everyone wants to do well in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup and he feels that a cup run could be a positive distraction.


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“The FA Cup is great, I’ve got good memories from it myself,” Kirk said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “I will be trying to share some of those memories and we’ve got a couple of players in this squad who have those shared memories.

“It’s a prestigious competition that everyone wants to do well in and it is just fresh for this time of year; all of the focus and talk has been on the league but then the FA Cup comes along.

“It’s quite a nice diversion of our attention. We are one of the two or three all-WSL ties to be drawn out so it’ll be a very competitive game and both teams will want to progress.”

Leicester City do not have the same level of squad depth as many of their Barclays Women’s Super League rivals but Kirk believes that the club can handle the additional games that a cup run would bring.

He said “Yes, definitely. There are not that many games in our league, 22 games, so we could definitely cope with an FA Cup run all the way to the final, that’s within our schedule and plans. Everybody wants to go far in the cup, anybody who says they don’t isn’t quite telling the whole story.

“The FA Cup is really prestigious, it holds a lot of weight, I’ve been there once but unfortunately, it was during COVID without the fans, I’d love to experience it again. The club will be looking to progress as deep into that competition as we can.”

Leicester City’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Reading kicks-off at 4pm. Pay on the day admission is available at The Pirelli Stadium.

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