AFC Bournemouth Women host Manchester United’s U21s this Sunday at the Cherries home ground Ringwood Town. The Cherries hope to progress to the next stage of FA National League Plate game, where they are currently looking to retain the plate for a third year in a row.
The thought of a treble cup win looms in the air amongst Cherries fans. Although that mentality isn’t in the manager’s nature, he stated: “To be honest, totally haven’t really thought about that. Obviously, our intentions are very clear to try and try and win the league and try and get promoted this cup competition we’ve got coming up this weekend it probably wasn’t high up in the priorities at the start of the year”.
A cup run of this magnitude isn’t something that would faze the Cherries side as the team ethos from the top down is “trying to win that next game”.
With this being said, Cuss still is thrilled with how the competition has gone so far, he said: “We’re delighted to be in the national semi-final and going to be up against a very strong man united the team”.
Cuss added: “We’ve always said that the competitions provide those challenges, the more rounds you can go through. So the fact that we’re now in the semi final and playing Manchester United Academy, it’s is a real challenge for us. To try and match them and try and put a performance on that’s going to win the game, but certainly one that we’re looking forward to”.
Captain of the women’s team Abby Jones is intrigued to see what the game could mean for the team on Sunday, she said: “There’s definitely a lot of nerves around team. It’s a semi-final, a big game for us. We don’t know much on the opposition. So, it’ll be good test for us to see where we are at against a good competition”.
The Cherries faced the set back of not being promoted last season, but the captain believes they can bounce back. Even with the delay of promotion, the squad remains positive s they are unbeaten in the league so far this season as well as remaining in the competition of the FA National League Cup.
Abby expanded on that and said: “We had some really difficult games coming back off of our loss in the league. Obviously that was our ambition but to come off the back of that with great spirit in the team and lots of encouragement”
The team are still focused on the league but continue to see the cup as a great opportunity. Jones expressed:“We know what our ambitions are for this season, but it’s always good to get a cup competition under our belt”.
The game is expected to have an estimated 600 supporters present to witness the Cup game as the Cherries look to progress to the next round. The club have advised fans to get there early, on a first come first serve basis. Tickets are free and the game kicks off at 2pm.
Bournemouth Rugby look to extend 12-game winning run