READING FC WOMEN face fellow Women’s Super League strugglers this weekend in the FA Women’s Cup.
The Royals will be hoping to book their place in the fifth round of the competition, with the Foxes standing in their way in Sunday’s showdown.
Leicester have endured a tough start to the Women’s Super League season and currently bottom of the table.
With zero points to their name after nine matches, Leicester finally got off the mark in their 10th league game when they got the better of Brighton & Hove Albion.
It turned out to be a convincing win for the hosts who struck three times without reply with goals from Aileen Whelan, Sam Tierney and Monique Robinson to halt their run of nine successive defeats.
The win gives the Foxes hope of escaping the drop this season with only one team relegated from the WSL after they closed the gap on both Brighton and Reading to four points.
Reading and Brighton are currently both on seven points, meanwhile Leicester have two games in hand on the Royals.
Despite also being perishingly close to the relegation zone, Kelly Chambers’ side have produced some encouraging performances.
They were hard done by to fall to a 1-0 defeat to top of the table Manchester United after an 87th minute winner and came agonisingly close to taking a point away at Chelsea before the winter break in a 3-2 loss.
Reading have already faced Leicester once in the WSL this season and will be hoping for a repeat result.
The Foxes took the lead at the Select Car Leasing Stadium in October’s contest after 36 minutes when Natasha Flint scored against the run of play.
But in the most dramatic of circumstances, Reading somehow managed to grab three points thanks to Rachel Rowe.
She netted directly from a corner in the 90th minute to equalise before she scored a spectacular solo goal, knocking the ball in the bottom corner from 25 yards after skipping past two challenges to earn her team a vital win.
Reading’s last trip away at Leicester, in May 2022, ended in a goalless draw.
