Hennessy excited by chance to test herself against City

AFC Bournemouth Women face Women’s Super League leader’s Manchester City this Sunday in the Women’s FA Cup fourth round.

It’s the furthest the club have ever reached in the competition and earned their place in the round after a 5-0 win against Fulham in December.

There has been a lot of build up to Sunday’s game given the two league difference between the clubs including a visit from the WFA Cup trophy on Tuesday, where the players took photos with the trophy before training next to it.

Bournemouth are unbeaten in the league for over 1000 days but will be the underdogs in Sunday’s match, a rare experience for the Cherries.

Defender Jessica Hennessy said: “Naturally you’re going to be nervous, you’re playing against some of the best players in the world and they’re top of the WSL.

“So there’s nerves but we’re just so excited, it’s going to be a great day. It’s a great thing for the club and for us girls, it’s probably one of the biggest games of my career.”

Hennessy said: “If I’m starting, I am excited about playing against Bunny Shaw. I think how she’s playing over the last few weeks and months is unbelievable and just to see how far off or how close I am to her because she probably is one of the best strikers in the world right now.

“Yeah hopefully I can prove myself but she might score five goals off me now.”

Bunny Shaw leads the WSL scoring charts with twelve goals in twelve league matches, totalling 74 goals in 83 matches for Manchester City since joining in 2021.

After seeing Macclesfield’s upset win against Crystal Palace last weekend, the team have a bit of extra belief they might be able to cause an upset of their own on Sunday.

Hennessy said: “I think the Macclesfield game puts the cherry on top for us because we know that we could be like them.

“We never go into a game thinking we’re going to get beaten here, you never know what’s going to happen and we have confidence as a team that we can beat anyone.”

The game kicks off at AFC Totton’s Snows Stadium this Sunday at 1pm.