After seeing off Rotherham United in the County Cup, Nick Buxton’s side return to league action for the first time in seven weeks as Leek Town Ladies visit the Iqbal Poultry stadium on Sunday.
Belles last played a league game on 16th October in the 2-1 home victory against Sporting Khalsa, remaining in third place in FAWNL Division 1 Midlands during that time, and now having three games in hand over leaders Stourbridge FC.
Opponents Leek Town Ladies FC was formed in 2015 and was promoted to Tier 4 level two years ago. Last season Leek finished a respectable fifth, but the club has made a modest start to this season's campaign, and sit tenth in the league on eight points with two wins, two draws and four defeats.
Last season was the first time that the Ladies had played the Belles, and they were on the wrong end of two heavy defeats, losing 9-2 at home and 5-0 away at Rossington. This season the Staffordshire club has also been involved in cup competitions over the last few weeks and were on an eight-game winless run which included six defeats and two draws, their last league result being a 3-1 home defeat to Sporting Khalsa. However, Leek ended that barren spell last weekend with a 6-2 win over Stoke City Reserves in the County Cup.
Belles manager Nick Buxton stressed the importance of being focused in getting back to league action and not taking the opponents lightly: "Every game in this league is hard and this game will be no different, regardless of Leek's league position at the moment. We need to continue to get points on the board, and to do that we need to work hard and do what we do well. If we do that, then we shouldn't have any problems: focus on what we do first, and concentrate on how they play afterwards."
The game kicks off at 2pm at the Iqbal Stadium, Moorends, DN8 4NA
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