Charlton Athletic ‘super-excited’ for London City Lionesses clash says Hills

Charlton Athletic ‘super-excited’ for London City Lionesses clash says Hills Charlton Athletic head coach Karen Hills says that her side are excited to challenge themselves against London City Lionesses this weekend. The Addicks play host to The Pride at The Valley on Saturday afternoon. Charlton Athletic are still searching for their first goal and points in the Barclays Women’s Super League. When speaking to the media in the pre-match press conference, Hills highlighted the fact that London City Lionesses have grown significantly since the two sides last met, but her players are excited for the challenge. “London City Lionesses are a very different looking team to what they were in the last couple of seasons when we played them,” Hills said. “We know their strength-in-depth, but we are super-excited to challenge ourselves against some of the best players.   “We know it’s going to be challenging, but it’s at our home ground, we are going to have another unbelievable crowd behind us and the players are really relishing the opportunity to play against the best players. “They’re another team that has a different pedigree of player and we need to be at our very best to compete with them. We are under no illusion of how difficult the game’s going to be, but it’s an opportunity and a challenge.” Charlton Athletic were unlucky to lose 1-0 at Everton last weekend. The Addicks netted an own goal and had two players sent-off in the game. Hills said that The Addicks have taken confidence from their performance on Merseyside. She said “I was really pleased to see the way that we defended and we restricted Everton to very little. They literally had one moment and unfortunately, it was an own goal from us. Even when we went down to 10 players, we were very solid, very good in defending. In this league, you need to have 11 players on the pitch to really compete and give yourself half a chance. Once the sending-off came and they scored, it was always going to be an uphill battle. “The confidence that we’ve taken from that game is that we were so much better than we were against Liverpool. The players are now starting to lean into the uncomfortable lessons and also relish these opportunities, play with no fear.” Ashleigh Neville and Hawa Cissoko will serve suspensions this weekend. Their absences are a blow for Charlton Athletic but Hills says that other players are ready to setp up. She said “Every player that is missing at this moment in time is a negative for us, but the players that now have the opportunity have roles to play. We’ve got five games in two weeks, a compact schedule, and every player is going to be called upon. “Ash [Neville] will miss three games, Hawa [Cissoko] will miss the one game. It definitely has impacted, but it presents opportunities for others that have been working really hard.” Charlton Athletic’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against London City Lionesses kicks-off at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon.