New Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Melissa Phillips says that the club see this evening’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie at Manchester United as a great opportunity to test themselves.
The Seagulls travel to the Leigh Sports Village as the huge underdogs to reach a first Wembley final.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Phillips said that the tie provides her side with an opportunity to test themselves and it will also prepare them for future battles in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
“What an opportunity,” Phillips said. “Playing them back-to-back, either side of the international break is exciting because we get to take the learnings from the previous match into the one ahead. What better way to stretch ourselves than facing a team who are fighting at the top end of the table.
“Everything that we take away from this match will really propel us on to the matches in the week against Everton and Liverpool.
“Looking at it, you take that last performance and it was a really gritty, well-organised performance for large parts of the match. It is just about tightening up on little lapses in judgement or organisation within the six-yard box. We maybe didn’t control possession but we created some quality chances, we were really well-organised and made it difficult for up to 60-70 minutes against a top team.”
Phillips went on to say that her side will need to manage Manchester United’s attacking threats well and aim to keep things tight for the full 90 minutes.
She said “Looking at the previous match, they’ve got some incredible threats with their pace, with how dynamic they are throughout their attacking unit. There’s a reason why they’re at the top of the table, they’ve been exceptionally well-coached and they have a really good identity about themselves this year.
“We will have to take the learnings from the previous game and develop a really clear game plan of where we make minor adjustments to be even more competitive, especially in that last 30 minutes where it really kind of opened up.”
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie at Manchester United kicks-off at 5.15pm.
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