Leicester’s Historic Promotion

For the first time in their history, Leicester will play in the topflight of women’s football after having have won promotion to the WSL at the weekend.

They won 2-0 on Sunday against London City Lionesses courtesy of goals from Samantha Tierney and Natasha Flint, which saw them go an unassailable eight points clear of Durham in second place, with two games remaining.

Leicester have been in exceptional form. They have won their last twelve league games and have only lost once in the league this season. Leicester have won 15 of their 18 games, which enabled them to pull away from Durham, who had also only lost one game, but had amassed more draws.

The season included big score lines, with a 9-1 win against Coventry United in November and a 7-0 win away at London Bees at the start of March. Leicester also won twice against Liverpool, beat third placed side Sheffield United in January, and won 2-0 against promotion rivals Durham in March.

Leicester are comfortably the leagues’ highest scorers with 50 goals this campaign, which is 15 more than the leagues’ next highest scorers. Sixteen of those goals belong to Natasha Flint, but others have chipped in as well, with Leicester having thirteen players scoring at least one goal in the league this season.

Defensively, they were also solid, with only 15 goals being conceded, and this defensive solidity combined with a free scoring mentality allowed them to have an impressive goal difference of +35.

Their success means next season they will be competing with the best of the English women’s game. Current champions Chelsea await, as does current second placed side Manchester City. There will also be trips to Casey Stoney’s Manchester United and games against Arsenal, who next season will be under different management when Joe Montemurro leaves his managerial position at the end of the season.

All that is to look forward to next season. Before that, Leicester still have two league games to play and an FA Cup game against Liverpool.