Preview: Leicester Women vs. Birmingham City Women - prediction, team news, lineups

Leicester Women will welcome Birmingham City Women to the King Power Stadium on Sunday with both teams set to battle it out in a relegation six-pointer.

The hosts are rooted to the bottom of the Women's Super League table and are still searching for their first points of the season, while Birmingham sit a place higher with a solitary point to their name.

Match preview

Leicester's new manager Lydia Bedford received a baptism of fire last weekend, with her first game in charge involving a tough away trip to Arsenal.

A disastrous first half saw Jordan Nobbs and Vivianne Miedema grab a goal apiece, before Leicester's task became even tougher when Jemma Purfield was shown a straight red card moments before half time.

Frida Maanum netted a brace late on to condemn the Foxes to a heavy defeat, but Bedford will know that her side's fight to remain in the top flight will rely on obtaining positive results against fellow relegation strugglers.

That loss represented Leicester's ninth consecutive league defeat of the season, but they could give their season impetus with a victory on Sunday.

If they are to get the win, they need to improve in the final third as the Foxes have only scored three league goals this season - no other team in the WSL has scored fewer.

As for Birmingham, they are still searching for their first win of the season, and they enter the weekend's contest off the back of four consecutive league defeats.

Their sole point of the campaign occurred on October 10, which came courtesy of a 2-2 draw away to West Ham, but since that fixture, the Blues have struggled.

Although, they can take comfort from their performance last week when they ran Manchester City close before falling to a 3-2 defeat.

Birmingham took the lead on two occasions thanks to a goal apiece for Christie Murray and Louise Quinn, however, goals from Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp and Ellen White guided Man City to victory.

The Blues will need to improve defensively if they are to avoid the drop, with Sunday's visitors currently holding the worst defensive record in the league after conceding 24 goals this season.

Team News

Leicester are likely to be without Paige Bailey-Gayle due to injury.

Abbie McManus missed last weekend's encounter and the defender remains a doubt for Sunday.

Following her red card last week, Purfield will miss out as she serves her one-match suspension.

Meanwhile, Birmingham are without Arabella Suttie, who is set to miss the rest of the season due to an ACL injury.

Darren Carter made numerous changes for their league cup fixture in midweek, but Sunday's starting lineup will be similar to the one that started against Manchester City last weekend.

Despite grabbing a brace in the league cup encounter with London City Lionesses, Eleanor Ryan-Doyle will have to settle for a place on the bench.

Leicester Women possible starting lineup:
Lambourne; De Graaf, Howard, McManus, Brougham; Tierney, Plumptre, Barker, O'Brien; Flint, Sigsworth

Birmingham City Women possible starting lineup:
Hourihan; Lawley, Quinn, Sandvej; Scott, Murray, Robertson, Holloway; Pennock, Smith, Sarri

We say: Leicester Women 2-1 Birmingham City Women

Both teams may be searching for their first league win of the season, but the Foxes can take confidence from the fact that they have won once in 90 minutes this season, while Birmingham are still winless in all competitions, and we think that small detail may give Leicester the edge on Sunday.

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