Rehanne Skinner is looking forward to West Ham United women's team returning to action this weekend after a break over the Christmas period.
The Adobe Women's FA Cup takes centre stage on Sunday, as the Hammers play against the current holders Chelsea at Kingsmeadow at 1pm GMT.
Whilst the manager admits that drawing Emma Hayes' side in the team's first match of the competition is certainly tough, Skinner looked back to the positive performance they produced against the champions in the Barclays Women's Super League back in October in Thursday's pre-match press conference.
The manager was also asked by the media about new signings Kristie Mewis, Shelina Zadorsky and Katrina Gorry, as well as her side's last match, a 1-1 draw with Leicester City in the Barclays WSL before the break...
Looking back at Leicester
To be honest, I thought performance wise, we played really well in that game against Leicester City and we should have had more out of it.
To find ourselves in a position where we needed to go and get that last minute goal was disappointing, but to get it shows that we’re growing in resilience our capabilities of being competitive at all stages of the game.
The players are fighting for everything in every single game, and we’ve just not had things go our way. We want to start this year by forcing things into our control a little bit more, and that we get the outcomes we deserve more consistently.
The new recruits
We're delighted to bring in our new signings.
For Kristie [Mewis] and Shelina [Zadorsky], I’ve had relationships with them for a while, so they were players that I knew would be effective in our style of play.
Back in the summer, I was having conversations with Katrina [Gorry]. So that’s been an ongoing plan really, to bring players of that type of experience and with those leadership qualities into the team to try and strengthen what we have.
I wanted to ensure that we had a lot of experience, which all of them have for their national teams, so it’s going to provide massive value to the team and help us move in the direction that we want to go in for the second half of the season.
We’ve got a lot of good potential in terms of youth as well. We have younger players that are learning, evolving and contributing.
Facing the holders
It’s not the easiest of draws, and Chelsea are probably the team that everyone wanted to avoid. It is what it is, that’s football!
When we played Chelsea earlier in the season, our performance against them was one that bolstered the way that we were trying to play from a player's perspective because we were so competitive in that game. We were able to create chances and we limited their chances.
We know that Chelsea will want to make a stance as the holders, we’ve got know doubt about that because that’s who they are and what they’re about.
But for us, it’s to build on the way that we played against them last time and the positives that we were able to take from that performance.
The magic of the FA Cup
The FA Cup as a competition is the most prestigious in this country. It’s got that national attachment to it. I think everyone wants to have the opportunity to play in the competition.
The cup is an incentive in itself, but the prize money is a huge incentive, because it’s a significant amount of money when you’re talking about players and making additions.
Increasing the prize money is something that is really important in helping to growth of the game. Collectively, we always want to win games, but it will give us that extra boost. It’s a huge some of money for every club.
We’ve just got to come out fighting for everything, really and start the new year in the way that we want to portray ourselves moving forward. That's the most important thing for us this weekend.
