Paul Konchesky is excited for West Ham United Women to begin their Vitality Women’s FA Cup campaign on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers travel to New Bucks Head to take on Wolverhampton Wanderers as they enter the fourth round of the competition.
Having reached the final in their first professional season as a club, Konchesky hopes that his side can emulate the success of that team this time around – although he admits it will take a lot of hard work to get to that point.
Firstly, they have to get past Wolves, and on paper it’s certainly got the potential to be a very tricky tie for his side.
The FA Cup is a fantastic competition
I think since I've been growing up the FA Cup has been one that you always want to watch, and as a kid you always dream of playing in these types of games.
I was lucky enough to play in a final for this football club and it meant everything to me to get to a cup final with the team that I support, it was something that you dream of as a youngster. For this team, this is silverware that is up for grabs, and these are important games.
I took charge of the team last season in the fourth round against Sheffield United in Olli’s (Harder) absence – but this is my first game in charge as manager, proper – so I’m excited for that.
This football club has been to a final before, so why can’t we do it again?
It is a great day out for everyone when you have the opportunity to go to Wembley, but we're taking things game by game and we want to get back to winning ways and build on that winning mentality, and it starts on Sunday at Wolves
Every game is important for us, it doesn't matter what game it is in what fixture, the next game is the most important game because it's our next game.
It gives you confidence when you're winning and if then games keep coming thick and fast and we can keep winning then that breeds confidence, and that’s what we want to achieve on Sunday.
Wolves have been going really well this season
They’re joint-top of their division and have beaten three teams already to reach this stage of the competition, so we have to guard against complacency and we must not underestimate them.
The magic of the FA Cup is all about putting the bigger sides against the lower league sides if you like, so they will be up for it.
We’ve done our research though, and we think we have a good idea of how to make sure that we advance through to the next round, which is ultimately what we want to do.
We’ve had a busy schedule, so we will need the whole squad
There might be an opportunity for those that haven’t started matches recently to come in, we’ll make that decision closer to the game.
We’ve had a busy 12 days or so and this is our fourth game during that period, which has involved a lot of traveling. That’s all part of football, but we can’t deny that it has been tough.
The group have got through it really well, and I’m sure they’re looking forward to getting down to business in the cup on Sunday.
