Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side are not taking anything for granted ahead of their Adobe Women’s FA Cup tie against Newcastle United at the Leigh Sports Village.
The Red Devils face the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division leaders this afternoon. Manchester United are bidding to reach another Adobe Women’s FA Cup final this season after featuring in the showpiece for the first time in 2022/2023.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, head coach Skinner said that his side are not thinking about the final at this stage and that Manchester United will be taking nothing for granted against fourth round opponents Newcastle United.
“The thing that we won’t do is think that we are in the next round before we play Newcastle,” Skinner said. “They’re two divisions below but they are a really aspirational team, they are playing well and they’re unbeaten. They’re coming here off the back of a 7-0 win with high confidence. We have got to be at our best, we’ve got to click into rhythm quickly.
“It’ll be a good game. We want to get back to that [final] and we want to go one better than we did last year but it comes game-by-game and that’s our focus.”
Newcastle United will be backed by 1,000 travelling fans at the Leigh Sports Village and Skinner is looking forward to a battle of noise between both sets of supporters.
He said “It’ll be exciting to have that back and forth [between fans] and it’ll make for an energetic game. In the first part of the game, it could give them that buoyancy but for us, it is about utilising that and giving our fans the energy to sing about our performance.
“It might be a factor [for them] at the start but I think it’ll lead to an exciting game.”
Manchester United’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Newcastle United kicks-off at 12pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.