The Leicester City players that new boss Rick Passmoor credits for point against Aston Villa | OneFootball

Rick Passmoor (Leicester City)

Rick Passmoor was confirmed as Leicester City’s new permanent manager on Friday – and on Sunday his team fought their way to a goalless draw against in-form Aston Villa at Villa Park.

And Passmoor was delighted – crediting his entire squad, even the ones who did not play a part in the match.

“I credit the whole squad, even the players that didn’t get on the pitch,” he said to the media afterwards. “They’re coming in to work and they’re training to get that shirt.

“The environment and culture we’re trying to create, our players are engaging and doing very well. This first month doesn’t define us, but you can see the foundations we’re laying down and it bodes well for the future.”

Rick Passmoor: We applaud our goalkeeper

He was complimentary of the challenge Villa posed – and did admit that goalkeeper Janina Leitzig had kept City in the match at times.

“What a squad performance,” he told the media. “You come to Villa Park for a local derby, you’ve got an opposition that know how they want to play and have recruited very well.

“We had to match them as a group and as a team. After a nervous first 15 minutes, in which we applaud our goalkeeper, but then how we built was good and what I was pleased with was the players’ ability to find solutions.

“They wanted to be positive in certain scenarios and out of possession we were a lot more solid. To come to Villa Park, get a point and a clean sheet, we’ll take that.”

And on those opening stages, he elaborated: “We’ve got to assess that first 15 minutes; we’ve told them the game plan and how we would tactically set up and then we’ve got to be positive from the first whistle.

“We knew that they had pace and power in the front line, and we needed to recognise that earlier, to be in a position to drop and move.

“You could see in the second half, it was rarer that they (Villa) got those opportunities, but credit to our goalkeeper for keeping us in it.”

Passmoor was named interim boss ahead of the first match of the season following the departure of Amandine Miquel.

Leicester are currently ninth in the WSL table, on five points.

Their next match is in the Subway Women’s League Cup, on Sunday, 19th October, when they face London City Lionesses.