Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that any talk of Wembley is on hold as his side prepare to face Brighton & Hove Albion in a Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final at the Leigh Sports Village this evening.
The Red Devils are the red-hot favourites to reach the final as they come up against the Barclays Women’s Super League’s bottom club on home soil but head coach Skinner is taking nothing for granted.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Skinner said that the club are not thinking about Wembley and that their full focus is upon facing a Brighton & Hove Albion side who go into the tie under new management.
“The reality is that we are not at the final,” Skinner said. “For us to think about anything other than the very difficult game that we have with them having a new manager would be dangerous.
“We would love to get to a final, to compete in a final and to win finals going forward but we have a very difficult task ahead of us. We mustn’t underestimate any opponent that stands in the way of our success, that’s the mentality that I want us to have between now and the end of the year. I want us to turn up the heat on every opponent, knowing that Brighton specifically will be a very difficult opponent to play against, so we better be ready for that.”
Brighton & Hove Albion appointed former London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips as their new boss during the international break. Skinner went on to say that his side have done their homework on Phillips but ultimately, the focus is on themselves.
He said “We will always focus on ourselves. When I talk about respect for the opponent, it is about knowing the opponent, their skill set and knowing how you can hurt them. With Mel coming in, you don’t know how long she’s had, so we just have to have details prepared around shapes that she has previously played, what would be more comfortable; we have to have a full scope and that’s what we do as staff every time we play.
“It’ll be a challenge because it’s a new manager going into a semi-final when league form doesn’t really matter but the reality is that if we perform to the best of our ability, we can beat any team in this league, that’s what we are going to try and focus on.”
Manchester United’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie against Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 5.15pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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