Aston Villa keen for another run in the FA Cup says Ward

Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that the club are keen to enjoy more success in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

The Villans face Everton in a fourth round tie at The Poundland Bescot Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Aston Villa made it all the way to the semi-finals last season before being eliminated by Chelsea and head coach Ward says that her side are hungry for another cup run this year.

“The first fixture back, whether it’s the first fixture of the season or after the break, it’s huge because it sets the tone,” Ward said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “The way we finished last year was strong.

“Last year, the cup competitions were great for us; a quarter-final and a semi-final and we want to replicate that. We gave the fans some unbelievable moments last year and some headaches as well with penalty shootouts.

“We had an enjoyable run in both cups and we want to replicate that again. I love the cup, I loved playing in the cup and I certainly love managing in it. We want to kick on and we want to use this as a platform to get going this year for sure.”

Everton defeated Aston Villa 2-1 on their previous visit to the Midlands before Christmas but there was little to separate the two sides over the 90 minutes. Ward expects another close encounter this weekend.

She said “Ever since Brian [Sørensen] has come in, they’ve always had a decent style of play. It’s always two teams that want to get the ball down and play football properly.

“It’s going to be a tough game, it always is. We’ve had some close battles against them since Brian came in and he has done a really good job with them.

“It’ll be tough but we are going out there trying to progress to the next round and nothing less.”

Aston Villa’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Everton kicks-off at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.