Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward is expecting her side to come up against a determined West Ham United outfit this weekend.
The Villans travel to The Chigwell Construction Stadium to contest a Vitality Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie. The two clubs are just three wins away from a Wembley appearance in the final.
West Ham United were competing for a place in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup final in their last match but they crashed to a 7-0 home defeat to Chelsea in their semi-final. Aston Villa boss Ward expects The Hammers to be eager to bounce straight back this weekend and she is anticipating a very tough match.
“It was an out of character performance, one that we don’t see too often and secondly, you probably saw Chelsea at their absolute best,” Ward said when discussing West Ham United’s recent heavy defeat in the pre-match press conference. “When Chelsea are on it like that, they are impossible to play against, they’re exceptional.
“There was a two-fold piece of that and that can happen. You’ve seen Chelsea do that to many teams but what I would say is that they are going to want a quick reaction.
“It is never a good time to play a team who have just been on the back of a defeat like that. West Ham are a good side, we’ve had some good battles against them over the years and it’ll be a good game I’m sure.”
Aston Villa have a good chance of recording a first-ever top half of the table finish in this season’s Barclays Women’s Super League but Ward says that the club are equally as keen to chase glory in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.
She said “It’s the FA Cup, it’s the biggest and best cup in the world in my opinion and it always has been; growing up watching it, playing in it and now managing in it.
“We want to win the football match, it is as simple as that, we want to go as far as possible. Every single player dreams of getting to Wembley and it is no different for us as staff. As a football club, we want to progress as far as possible so we will be doing everything that we can to win the game. It’s not just another cup game, it’s a game that we want to go and win.”
Aston Villa’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie at West Ham United kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon.
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