22 February 2024 , 10:29
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It’s a good thing Sophie Howard opted against retirement.
Two challenging years with Reading left the Scotland international, just 26 at the time, feeling “out of love with football”. A spell elsewhere was no guarantee that the love would come back, especially not a spell in English women’s football’s second-tier with Leicester City.
Four years on, the decision to join the Foxes looks prescient: after relishing a promotion campaign and weathering two trying seasons in the top-flight, Willie Kirk’s Foxes sit seventh in the Women’s Super League with more than half the season gone.
It’s a feat that is more impressive than its humble berth suggests, especially for a team who last December had been tagged, stamped and signed for the drop, only to clinch survival on the season’s final day with a 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion. With 16 points to show for, the points haul represents the most in Leicester’s three seasons thus far in the top-flight – and with eight matches left to swell that tally even larger.
The 2023/24 campaign comes in stark contrast to that of top-flight seasons prior, especially last season as Kirk was promoted to first-team manager in January and oversaw sweeping changes to the team’s tactics, identity and mindset.
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“Last season was mentally draining throughout the whole season, especially up until Christmas,” Howard told the BBC. “It was brutal so we’re very happy we’re not in that position. So we’re looking ahead and we’re looking more towards the top of the table than behind us.”
Where Kirk’s Leicester showed glimpses of the team’s potential throughout the second-half of last season, consistency would always prove the litmus test. So far this season, the Foxes have done well in doing so, producing impressive draws against Manchester United and a once high-flying Tottenham Hotspur. Indeed, of their six losses in the campaign to date, only one (Aston Villa) arrived against a team from outside the top five.
The January transfer window has produced further encouragement for Kirk’s side, with Japan internationals Yuka Momiki and Saori Takarada wasting no time in showing their recruitment value.
The signs are encouraging then for Kirk’s mission of a top-six finish.
Willie Kirk is bidding for a top-six finish for Leicester City this season (Photo by Morgan Harlow/Getty Images)“We’re very ambitious and there’s a whole lot more we want to achieve,” Kirk told the BBC. “This season there’s been a lot of firsts, there’s been small wins, small celebrations.”
He added: “I’m not one for looking backwards, only for looking forwards. I’ve never been that type of person. The players reflect that. We’re not looking at how close eighth position is to us, we’re looking at how far away sixth is. That’s our aim is to get into that top six and we know we have a gap to close.”
It takes time to adjust to the rigours of the WSL. And with the room for error increasingly shrinking by the season, those rigours can become lethal. It’s a lesson that Howard, 30, believes can also be an edge for the Foxes in the season’s final throes.
“Our strength is that we have been in that position so we can almost put ourselves in the shoes of clubs in that position like Bristol City, who we know will come out and fight massively,” she said.
The Foxes certainly utilised that lesson to their advantage over the weekend, defeating the Vixens 5-2 after going down a goal following a mistake playing out from the back. City showed plenty of grit and conviction, restoring parity shortly after the interval, but it was Leicester who demonstrated their savvy as they fired three past Lauren Smith's side without reply.
The Foxes will face a looming test in doing so as they welcome reigning champions Chelsea to the King Power Stadium following the international break. Emma Hayes’ side suffered a 1-0 loss to Manchester City to blow open a title race that for so long felt Chelsea’s to clinch without issue.
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That the Blues will arrive with title credentials to prove, knowing that any slip-up could be a fourth successive title spurned. But Leicester will want to improve on the 5-2 loss sustained against Chelsea earlier in the season as they look to continue on their trajectory.
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