It’s been 126 days since Foxes Development Team last played a game of football. On Sunday 18th April, however, that’s all about to change.
The Devs will be up against Stoke City Women Reserves, for the second consecutive fixture, four months after the sides last met. In that meeting, Foxes were narrowly beaten 4-3. The sides are taking part in a friendly tournament, which mirrors the First Team’s fixtures.
We caught up with Foxes Development Team Manager, Mark Wayman, to get his thoughts on the upcoming fixture.
Q. It’s been a long time since the Development side have been out on the pitch. How are you feeling about the return?
Personally I’m excited. It’s been a very long time since we played and it’s been a very broken up season, so we’re all looking forward to getting back to some normality and getting back to regular football. The buzz of a matchday is long overdue!
Q. How have the players been getting on during the lockdown period? Are they ready to go again?
We did regular online sessions through the lockdown to keep them engaged and since they’ve come back to training, they’ve bought into everything really well and have worked very hard in every session. They’re in a good place right now, so we’re hoping to keep up our progression with every session and fixture.
Q. Even though the matches have been 4 months apart, you’re up against Stoke City Reserves for the second consecutive game. What do you make of the opposition?
It’s a funny old coincidence! We know Stoke will be tough opposition. They’ll play on the front foot so we have to be ready to match their intensity and desire, as a minimum. We’ve got the quality in the squad to hurt them, and we’ve got a good idea around how they might try to play. Ultimately we want to focus on ourselves though, and how we can put in the best performance on the day.
Q. Last time out, you narrowly lost 4-3. What can you take from that game into this one?
I think it’ll be a completely different game because of the gap from when we last played. We can take bits from how we played and how they played on that day, as could they, but it’ll be a very different game this time around.
Q. How do you see the game going? Are you feeling confident going into the match?
The girls have worked very hard over the past few weeks so we’re as prepared as we can be. It’ll be interesting to see how both teams cope with the quick return from such a long period away, but it should be a good game and a great way to get back into playing fixtures again.
Q. The game against Stoke City Reserves leads into several consecutive fixtures – are you excited for the prospect of regular football again?
I think we’re all very excited to have a run of games to look forward to. It has been a long time since we’ve had this many fixtures in succession so the whole team is buzzing to be back out there, doing what we all love!
Find the match preview for Sunday’s games here.