‘It’s going to be wide open’ – London City Lionesses boss Phillips comments on title race | OneFootball

London City Lionesses boss Melissa Phillips says that it is clear that this season’s Barclays Women’s Championship title race is wide open.

After three rounds of matches, only Bristol City have maximum points. You could argue that The Robins were expected to have nine points on the board at this stage given the fact that they have had three relatively favourable opening fixtures.

Other than Bristol City, only Lewes are yet to taste defeat while last weekend’s action produced some upsets with Crystal Palace losing to Southampton and Birmingham City being beaten heavily at Charlton Athletic.

London City Lionesses are one of a handful of sides targeting promotion this season and head coach Phillips says that the early season results prove that the title race is going to be wide open this year.

“When you look back at the results in the league last Sunday, if it wasn’t clear in the first two weeks that it is going to be wide open, it’s definitely clear now,” Phillips said when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time. “When you look at the fact that Southampton took points off Palace and the Birmingham and Charlton game was such a dominant performance by Charlton, I think it is anyone’s league.

“There’s still loads of time in the season to play for it, I certainly don’t think a team will drop one game and go on to win it this season. We’ve said every year that it has got more competitive and the results from the first three rounds of games certainly show that.

“We have to just keep focusing on our own performances and try to pick up every point that we can.”

London City Lionesses have had a tough start with games against Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Lewes. The challenge gets no easier this weekend when Durham are the visitors to Princes Park. Phillips said that her side must be sharp at both ends of the pitch if they are to pick up more points.

She said “Durham are always a challenge to play against and it is no secret that we haven’t taken any points off them in the last two seasons. They have been tightly-contested matches, very physical and very set piece orientated in terms of the goals that we have conceded against them.

“We know the areas that we will need to be sharp in and ultimately, we are looking forward to getting back at home. We are quite confident in the defensive performances that we have had and the goals that we have conceded, we haven’t really been broken down a lot. We will have to bring that side of our game but equally, we will have to convert our chances and be really sharp.”

London City Lionesses’ Barclays Women’s Championship fixture against Durham kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday. Tickets for the match remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.