Ahead of AFC Bournemouth Women’s fourth round tie with Manchester City on Sunday, the FA suprised the team with a visit from the Women’s FA Cup trophy.
The squad took turns having their photograph taken with the trophy and there was a real buzz in the room.
The Cherries then headed out for training in the pouring rain on what was a gloomy afternoon.
Manager Helen Bleazard said: “I literally told them about 20 minutes before, it’s a lovely occasion to have it but we still need to have all eyes on Manchester City but yeah it was a nice little suprise for them.”
Bournemouth made history by booking their place in the fourth round, the furthest they have ever reached in the competition, after a convincing 5-0 win against Fulham in December.
Goals from five different players: Sophie Quirk, Molly Barron-Clark, Jenna Markham, Katie James and Amber Treweek, helped the Cherries to ease past fourth-tier Fulham.
Now Bournemouth have a tough test on their hands in Manchester City, who sit top of the Women’s Super League with a six point gap to Chelsea in second.
Manchester City have won the Women’s FA Cup three times, in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and are one of the favourites to win it this year.
Cherries Women usually play in Ringwood, but high-profile matches are sometimes hosted at Vitality Stadium.
Sunday’s fixture is being played at AFC Totton’s Snows Stadium after AFC Bournemouth said to protect the pitch at Vitality Stadium, the clash would instead take place in Totton.
This decision has been met with disappointment from fans however the match still sold out within 24 hours.
Cherries’ Women are top of the Women’s National League South after twelve games and are unbeaten in the league so far.
Bleazard said: “Our game got called off at the weekend, so we had an extra training session which was great.
“We put a few things in their minds about how we might want to play and it is the nature of it. Man City are going to have a lot of the ball, we’d be naive to think that wouldn’t be the case so it’s about adapting.”
The game kicks off at Snows Stadium at 1pm this Sunday.
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