For the first time this season, Guiseley Vixens will come face to face with promotion contenders Leicester City, as they make the trip down to the Midlands still in search of their first league victory this season.

It has long-since been a cruel sense of irony that Guiseley have put in some strong performances but often come away empty handed, with their 2-0 loss against Derby in their last league fixture once again seeing those themes come into place.

However, despite coming up against an “exceptionally talented and gifted” Leicester side full of attacking threats, Vixens manager Glen Preston is aiming to do a lot more than simply stop their opponents from scoring.

“If we turn up and play at our best then there’s no reason that we can’t take the game to Leicester.” says Preston “When we played away from home against Stoke in the second-half we were the better of the two teams, same against Derby when we drew 2-2 and even when we played league leaders Middlesbrough twice for 65 minutes were the dominant side, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

“So for me we’ve had large spells of dominance in those matches and I don’t see this one being any different. But we know we’ll have to defend very well and we’ll have to be very focussed to get something out of this game against Leicester.”

On top of some long-term injuries, Guiseley have also been hit by some absentees ahead of their trip to Leicester. However, a 7-3 victory in a midweek friendly against Leeds United held many encouraging signs for Preston that the squad he takes down to Leicester have the ability to cause the promotion contenders some real problems.

“We’re going to be without quite a few players this weekend and we’ve got two or three of our full-backs out or absent and some players on international duty, so there are a fair number of players that are absent but we’ll flex the strength of the squad, which is ever improving.

“For us it’s just about match sharpness at the moment, we look on paper like a very good team. We’ve got very good individuals, but they haven’t played a lot together, so I think we now just need to gel and we need two or three more games to gel. We certainly showed signs in our 7-3 win on Thursday that there was a bit more cohesion between us, I just hope now that we can take that into the league.”

Words: Connor Craig-Jackson
Photo: Ian Stevens