Cheltenham Town Women’s Manager Tom Davies is hoping his side can be “more direct” ahead of their Women’s FA Cup clash against Portsmouth.
It’s the second time in two weeks they’ll play at Pompey, as on Sunday the Robins travelled to Fratton Park as their latest FA Women’s National League fixture ended as a thrilling 6-3 win for the hosts.
Reflecting on the match, Davies was optimistic.
“I’m, really pleased with the effort, the commitment and the way the team applied what we’ve asked them to do. We scored three goals against a team that’s conceded one all season, so there’s some huge positives there.”
On playing them again this weekend, Davies was pragmatic.
“You approach them the same way, we’re going to have to play teams twice a season in the league, we might play teams twice a season in the cup.”
He was also confident in the opportunities his team had for reflection on the nine-goal encounter.
“We have really good footage to go off of. It’ll be a little bit of cat and mouse, a bit of chess from both teams. We can tweak things that didn’t go so well.”
Cheltenham’s FA Cup record of late has been impressive, with an incredible fourth-round appearance last year, which was ended by Wolves after a 2-0 defeat that was their best ever.
Portsmouth meanwhile almost matched that last season, before a loss of the same scoreline saw Bristol City knock them out in the third round. Their best ever performance saw them make the quarter finals, but that was over a decade ago, in 2014.
Speaking to how he’ll set his side up for the rematch, Davies said “We’ve got a direct idea of what we tried to do today, rather than looking at what trends the opposition are going to have, we’ll look at a plan to see how similarly we can hurt them.”
The two sides share a league, yet their form is contrasting. Portsmouth, who sit fourth on 14 points, are unbeaten since mid August, and a win on Sunday would extend that run to seven games without a loss.
Cheltenham Town meanwhile aren’t enjoying life quite the same way, having picked up just five points all season despite joint-fourth highest goal tally.
“It’ll be a challenge, but it’ll be an exciting one.”
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