Manchester United Women’s boss Marc Skinner has claimed his side will aim to put in a strong defence of their FA Cup title.
United were victorious in May last year, comfortably beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 in the final to win the Women team’s first ever piece of major silverware.
The Red Devils will begin their defence of their crown at home to West Bromwich Albion later today, where they will hope to go on a long run in this year’s edition of the tournament too.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference Skinner stated, “we are the holders of this cup and we want to continue that.”
“We know it’ll be a difficult task to get to the final again but we start with West Brom [on Saturday]. It’s going to be a good game, it’s the joys and trials and tribulations of an FA Cup, so I’m sure that they’ll enjoy the moment.”
He also claimed that the biggest respect that his side can pay his opponents is that they will be laser-focused to get the job done and move onto the next round of the cup.
Skinner then stated that he knows a few of the West Brom players well from when he used to train them.
“A long time ago, I used to coach some of their players as kids at Birmingham. We know a lot about them.”
The boss noted that United must not be complacent as the National League North team, which is the third division of women’s football, will be well up to the task of dethroning the champions.
“It’s one of those games where they’ll raise their game 20-30 percent, to the best of their performance but the reality is that we have to suffocate that and we have to be in a position for our football to do the talking.”
With the disparity in league position, many would assume Skinner would take the chance to rest some key players ahead of a busy January of action but the manager states he will take a different approach and play a strong first eleven to get his side ready after the winter break.
“It’s the first game of this part of the season for us, so we have to get players minutes before we go into a three-game week which is next week.”
United will take on West Brom later this evening with their match kicking off at 17:15 UK time.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
