Bradford City Women fired up for return to action against Newcastle

The Bantams' three-week Christmas break ends when they visit Newcastle United – who held them to a goalless draw in Bradford last month – on Sunday.

Sitting at the foot of the table, United made the journey to West Yorkshire with aims to frustrate City and Legge says that makes the team even hungrier for victory this time.

"The girls are well up for this weekend as we know we should have taken three points from Newcastle last time," she said.

"They made it difficult for us, as they played for the draw, but we need to make sure we come home with all three points this time."

The rest of the FA Women's Premier League returned to action on Sunday, with Leicester's surprising win over table-topping Middlesbrough seeing them leapfrog City into fourth on goal difference.

But after such a demanding first half of the season, Legge – who has started all 13 of City's league games – believes there are plenty of advantages that come from having an extra week off.

"It's just our luck to have no game the first weekend back – but looking at the positives, it's another week of training under our belts to work off the mince pies," she said.

"Everyone's dying to get back at it after a good week on the training pitch too.

"I think the break came at a good time really, so we can regroup and go again after a difficult December. We've played a lot of games with none being called off for a change.

"The loss to Blackburn was unfortunate after we worked so hard, then came the draw with Newcastle."

City did bounce back from those two winless games in style, beating Yorkshire Amateur 8-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the County Cup, of which they are the holders.

It was a task that required patience in breaking down a determined defence and, after passing it with such flying colours, City will hope they can do the same on Tyneside.

Legge said: "Like I mentioned previously, we should have beaten them last month, so we definitely owe them one this weekend."