Brighton 0 LCFC Women 1: The greatest escape?
Leicester Women put the finishing touches to a sensational second half of the season by securing their WSL status with a draw on the south coast.
So endeth one of the strangest great escapes you’re ever likely to see. Leicester, pointless at Christmas, cantered to survival thanks to results elsewhere in the final few weeks of the season.
The most important results were back to back wins three weeks apart, thanks to the vagaries of the WSL calendar. The inequalities in the top division meant survival was all-but secured going into this tie, as Reading, who needed a win to put Leicester under pressure, had essentially no chance to beat champions Chelsea on the final day.
Leicester could, technically, have been relegated, and had to treat this game as if it was a real encounter. In reality, they must have known that Reading’s failure to beat Spurs last weekend made this week a formality.
Once Sam Kerr put Chelsea in front after 20 minutes, there was no longer any doubt. Freed from the pressure to get a result, Leicester decided to treat us to the hits.
Finishing school
My abiding memory of this season is going to be Leicester players missing endless chances from unfathomable positions. The main reason this team were rooted to the bottom of the table for so long was their inability to score. An obvious point, perhaps, but this was not a side that looked like the worst team in the division for months on end.
It was apt, then, for Willie Kirk’s side to batter Brighton all ends up in this game and proceed to miss a hatful of chances. The hosts had nothing to play for, but spent a lot of the game chasing shadows as Leicester carved them open.
In the first half alone, Hannah Cain raced clear of the Brighton defence only to drag her shot miles wide, Missy Goodwin did exactly the same thing soon afterwards, and Carrie Jones had an air shot from five yards out with the goal at her mercy.
The pattern continued in the second half. Cain headed over on the hour from a couple of yards out, Sam Tierney headed over from a set piece with the goal gaping, Aileen Whelan had a header well saved a minute later.
Fortunately, in amongst the avalanche of opportunities, we saw the difference between the Willie Kirk side of 2023 and the Lydia Bedford version from the first half of the campaign: one of them went in.
The source was Ava Baker, who had come off the bench to run riot down the right hand side. From the moment she came on she was electric, tying defenders in knots and forcing a succession of corners. One of those set pieces found Ashleigh Plumptre at the back post and, in the ensuing scramble, Baker poked home the winner.
Forward thinking
Of course, it wouldn’t have been Leicester without an inexplicably nervy finish, when Brighton suddenly started creating chances of their own and putting pressure on Janina Leitzig’s goal. By that stage, Chelsea were two goals up, survival was no longer in question, and it was merely a matter of keeping things interesting.
It feels right that they eventually saw the game out and ended the season with a win. To have stayed up on the back of four straight losses would have been a disappointing way to finish. Instead, the win saw them leapfrog their opponents into 10th spot, which is a more realistic reflection of the ability in the team.
It also meant that many of the loanees who have done so much to transform the season went out on a high. Leitzig was rarely troubled, Courtney Nevin took the corner that led to Leicester’s winner, the aforementioned Jones had a great chance of her own. Ruby Mace was absent, after her red card last weekend.
None of those will be back next season. The hierarchy will once again have to beg, steal, and borrow themselves a team that can keep itself in the division.
This game neatly demonstrated the pressing need for goals up front. Leicester ended up the lowest scorers in the WSL, with their total of 15 eight shy of anybody else. They scored half as many from open play as any of the teams that survived. That’s going to have to change next season if the team is going to establish itself in the mid-table mix.
They’re also going to have to replace the extra bit of quality that the loanees provided in the second half of the season. The turnaround was a true team effort, but it’s hard to imagine it could have happened without the star power of Leitzig, Nevin, and Mace.
Perhaps Baker’s cameo is a sign of things to come. Her impact was a hugely exciting sign for the future. Leicester’s attack has lacked a genuinely creative spark all season and her ability to beat defenders already looks on a different level to anybody else. If players like her can step up, and Cain can add more ruthless finishing to her all round game, then the foundations to build around look a lot stronger than this time last year.
For now, though, it’s celebration time. A season that felt doomed for months on end has ended in triumph. A team that endured hammer blow after hammer blow before Christmas turned it around. This anticlimactic finish doesn’t tarnish an astonishing Houdini escape act.
