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LOUGHBOROUGH LIGHTNING FC V HULL CITY LFC
RICHARD ALLEN
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to the Loughborough University Stadium for our opening game of the 2021/22 season FA Women’s National League (Norther Prem) versus Hull City. This is an exciting day for all of us and the culmination of a lot of hard work by numerous people over a number of years. Playing our first league game as Loughborough Lightning is a real step forward in ensuring our women’s football offer is one of the best in the country. Hull come to us off the back of wins versus Lincoln City and their Veterans team in their final preseason games. Last Sunday we finished our preseason preparation with a convincing 5-0 win against Burton Albion. It was nice to finish off so strongly after a mixed set of preseason friendly results. We know it’s going to be a tough season with many of our opponents having invested quite heavily in both their infrastructure and players. With sadness we have to report the passing of Alum and former women’s player, Ria Melvin. Ria was heavily involved in all aspects of the women’s football programme and at only 26 far to young. In a mark of respect our players will be wearing black armbands and we will be holding a minutes applause to remember Ria prior to kick off. We are pleased to welcome the players, supporters and directors of Hull City and look forward to what we hope will be an exciting and entertaining game.
