London City Lionesses want community to become 12th player says captain Bennett | OneFootball

London City Lionesses captain Harley Bennett says that the club are hoping that the local community will become their 12th player this season.

After England’s Lionesses made a real connection with football fans across the country during their success at the UEFA Women’s EURO this summer, the attention turns towards another set of Lionesses, London City Lionesses, this weekend as they begin their Barclays Women’s Championship campaign at home to Crystal Palace.

When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time ahead of the club’s season opener, London City Lionesses captain Bennett said that The Pride are striving to create a similar connection with their own fans as England did over the summer.

“The Lionesses had such a good connection with the crowd and that made it feel like a 12th man,” Bennett said. “We would like to have that at London City Lionesses and we are pushing as hard as we can to get the local community behind us.

“We play really nice football, we are very passionate and we appreciate the support of everyone who wants to come and support us.”

While the nation went England-crazy at the EUROs, the challenge is to now transfer the growth in profile of the national team to the club game. Bennett went on to say that the growth process of London City Lionesses is gradual but the club’s aim is to pick up England’s legacy and try to get as many fans as possible connected to Barclays Women’s Championship football.

She said “As a club, we are trying to push things (growth), especially as we are not attached to a men’s club. The fact that we are a standalone club is fantastic but things will take time.

“Given what happened in the summer with the Lionesses, we can only try and benefit off the back of that. We want to get as many people as we can to become interested in the league as well as the national team.”

London City Lionesses’ opening game of the 2022/2023 campaign against Crystal Palace kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets for the game can be purchased by clicking here.