Leeds United Women manager, Dan O’Hearne has given his thoughts ahead of the Yorkshire derby with Barnsley on Thursday evening.
The match will see two rivals both locally and divisionally come up against one another, fighting for the points to move up the table.
“It’s a Yorkshire derby and they have had the upper hand against us in the last season or two, so it will be a tough game,” O’Hearne explained.
“It’s one under the lights and we’ve been playing well when that has been the case lately, so we need to see another big performance from the team on the night.
“This one does mean a bit more. Everyone raises their game when they play us as we’ve mentioned before, and Barnsley are definitely one of those teams who do that as well.
“There is plenty of incentive for Laura [Bartup] and Kathryn [Smith] as well because they used to play for them, so they will want to win the match.”
The Whites have played just the one game at home up to now in the league, which was a victory over Stockport. O’Hearne was quick to state that they know how important home matches are.
He said: “The home games are crucial to us.
“We want to win our matches here and then also pick points up when we’re away from home when we can.
“We got the win away at Alnwick at the weekend, it wasn’t pretty and we missed a lot of chances but we still created well and got the win.
“Hopefully we start taking the chances tonight and get the win, we can then take more confidence into another tough match against Liverpool Feds on Sunday.
“We’d love to see as many fans down here as possible for the Barnsley game and then on Sunday as well, the team really enjoy playing in front of the Leeds United supporters.”