Millwall Lionesses v London Bees preview – home side have firepower to cause any opposition problems

London Bees and Millwall Lionesses renew acquaintances in the FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup on Sunday, having faced each other as recently as last weekend in FA Women’s Super League 2.

That match was full of drama and although Millwall won, the Bees have now had a full week to plot a different result this time around.

FORM GUIDE
The Lionesses are flying at the moment with three wins from their four games in FA WSL 2, with victories over the Bees, Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford.

Lee Burch’s side gave a spirited display in the 5-2 loss to Arsenal in the Continental Tyres Cup on Wednesday and have shown they’re willing to take on any opponent this season – scoring 14 goals.

The Bees would have hoped to have more points on the board at this stage in the campaign but they’ve been unlucky to not get more out of some knife-edge matches.

That’s especially true of their most recent outing, the 3-2 loss to the Lionesses last Saturday, with the Bees going 2-0 up before Millwall brought it back to 2-2 and Ashlee Hincks scoring a winning penalty.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

Prior to that game at the weekend, Millwall had also won the most recent encounter between Sunday’s opponents – back in April during the Spring Series.

A tight game at the Hive saw the Lionesses triumph 2-1, with Ella Rutherford and Charlie Devlin scoring early before Ashleigh Goddard got one back for the Bees just after half-time.

Back in 2016 the Bees fared better against the South London side, drawing one FA WSL 2 game 1-1 and coming out on top in the other 2-1.

ONE TO WATCH – Charlotte Devlin (Millwall)

Having conceded two goals to Devlin at the weekend, Luke Swindlehurst’s side will be on their guard against her multiple talents.

The first of those strikes saw Devlin expertly curl the ball into the top corner of Nicola Hobbs’ goal and the second was a lovely volley that left Hobbs with no chance.

No doubt the Bees defence will stick tight to her on Sunday and with the shooting accuracy she’s already displayed they’ll be hoping to deny any sights on goal.

WHAT THEY SAID

London Bees defender Chelsea Weston said: “We will work on what we’re going to do to take out Millwall’s strengths and attack their weaknesses.

“We will obviously review their team, take into consideration the formation they can play and work on that over the week.

“Hopefully we’ll have a plan A, plan B as to how they will play and what formation they will choose.

“They are obviously capable of doing different things but we will need to just figure it out so we can then use that to limit their strength.

“Obviously everyone wants to win the cup, everyone wants to go through and win it all and I think that is the mentality we will take.”

Millwall Lionesses striker Rianna Dean said: “To be top of the league is brilliant for us and we’ve gone into this competition full of confidence.

“This is a good chance for us to really progress in this competition, but it could go either way because the WSL is so competitive and the WSL 1 teams are all really strong.

“With us being top of WSL 2, we want to show that we can compete at that level, if we could go up or anything like that and compete against teams like that.”

 

England face Bosnia & Herzegovina in a FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier at Walsall FC on 24 November, KO 7.05pm. Buy tickets (£10 Adult/£1 Under-18) at www.thefa.com/tickets