Lincoln Ladies v Leeds United Ladies preview

FA Cup quarter final.

 Please remember that this game kicks off at 12.00pm!!!

Lincoln's reward for beating Chelsea 1-0 in the previous round is a home tie against National premier division side Leeds United Ladies. Although we haven't played Leeds for quite a while there are plenty of connections between the two clubs. Lady Imps' manager Rick Passmoor spent many years at Leeds as manager, and Lincoln players Sophie Walton, Carla Cantrell, Jess Clarke, and Remi Allen all played under Rick at Leeds in the years before the FAWSL was created. With all these connections between the clubs its hardly surprising that the official Leeds United Ladies twitter feed described the tie as "Old Leeds v New Leeds". To help me with this weeks preview, i am joined by special guest and long time Leeds United Ladies fan Leanne Brown, to give us a bit more of an insight into the side that Lincoln will be facing this weekend. Leanne has been following the women's game for many years and has a fantastic inside into the game. If you would like to follow her on Twitter then here is her twitter handle @Bantam75

Tale of the form.

Lincoln's game last week away at Bristol was called off early due to the terrible weather. As was Leeds' League Cup semi final away at Sunderland. In all competitions however they are on a 12 match unbeaten run with their last defeat being a 3-0 defeat away at Manchester City on November the 11th. At present they sit in third place in the FA Premier league with 22 points collected from the 11 matches, and they trail league leaders Sunderland by eight points but do however have a game in hand. In the league this season they have won 7, drawn 1, and lost 3, and have a goal difference of +8.

Leeds United Ladies in the FA Cup this season.

Round 3 Leeds United Ladies 3-2 West Ham United Ladies

Round 4 Watford Ladies 0-2 Leeds United Ladies

Round 5 Leeds United Ladies 4-0 Yeovil Town Ladies

Leeds United Ladies last six games in all competitions.

Leeds United Ladies 4-0 Yeovil Town Ladies   FA Cup

Leeds City Vixens 0-4 Leeds United Ladies  WRCC Semi final*

Leeds United Ladies 2-0 Charlton Althetic Ladies Premier League

Watford Ladies 0-2 Leeds United Ladies  FA Cup

Leeds United Ladies 1-1 Sunderland Ladies Premier League

Leeds United Ladies 3-2 Charlton Athletic Women Premier league cup

*WRCC stand for West riding county cup. I am not sure we can read too much into this piece of form however. Leeds have recorded two 18-0 wins so far in the competition against Ossett Albion Ladies and Amaranth Ladies respectively, with Wakefield Ladies faring slightly better in round three only losing 16-0. 

Anyway that's the stats and facts out of the way. Lets get Leanne's views on the club and find out a little more about the players of Leeds United Ladies.

1)    Could you please give us a quick rundown on how Leeds United Ladies’ season has gone so far in the National Premier division?
Very well they are in the mix of teams at the top of the league.  Out of the 3 games they have lost 2 were early in the season and they've had a 12 game unbeaten run which is fantastic

2) Lincoln manger Rick Passmoor is very well known to Leeds fans. What were your highlights of his time in charge of Leeds United Ladies?
 The league cup final in 2010 it was an amazing night at Rochdale and a brilliant performance

3) Leeds has a great record of developing talent; with the likes of Ellen White and Jess Clarke going on to become full England internationals. Are there any youngsters coming through who could follow in their footsteps?
  Jules Draycott, Bekki Bass and Carey Huegett

4)    Who are the danger players for Leeds that Lincoln fans should watch out for today?
Carey Huegett always an eye for goal and Clare Sykes the hard working midfielder


5)    Lincoln have a few former Leeds players in their squad. Which one are you most looking forward to seeing in action again today?
 Sophie Walton always works hard and is good for football

6)    Leeds have made a bid to join the FAWSL in 2014. Have the club done a good job of getting the message out to the local community about this? And has there been a lot of support for the bid?
The club have a done a good job and the local paper has featured their big for the FAWSL and there is plenty of support

7)    Finally could we please have a score prediction from you for today’s game?

          1-2 with Leeds winning

My views on the game.

On paper you would fancy a side in a higher division to beat a side from a lower division at home. However this is a very different ball game. As we have seen, Leeds are having a good season and scoring quite a few goals. They are battle hardened and have been together playing competitive games since August where as Lincoln have only one game under their belts. In many ways i think this will be a harder game than the Chelsea game in the previous round. In that case it was the first game of the season for two sides that were still bedding in. Leeds will be seen as the underdogs but will want to prove a point. As we have heard they have submitted a bid to join the FAWSL next season and what better way to prove their worth than dumping out a current WSL side out of the FA Cup on their own ground? There are no replays in the women's FA cup which i think encourages attacking play so its set up for a fantastic clash. It will be a hard game and an entertaining one. I will go for a tight 3-2 win for Lincoln.

Seeing how it is Easter i thought we had to have a cute Easter picture in here somewhere.