JAY Bradford insists her Coventry United Ladies side need to put their “best foot forward” as they prepare to face Watford in the FA Cup third round.
The Red and Greens have had a three-week break since their last fixture and return to action against fellow FA Women’s Championship side Watford.
Coventry have already beaten the Hornets this season – securing a 3-0 win at Butts Park Arena in the League Cup back in October.
And Bradford expects an interesting game at Gaywood Park this weekend and insists her side will do everything in their power to ensure they progress to the next round.
Bradford said: “Watford will be organised and they’ll be up for it just as much as we are – it’ll be an interesting tie.
“It’s the FA Cup so I’m thinking: ‘are they going to change? are they going to do anything different?’ they’re possibly thinking the same about us.
“The league is my priority and always will be particularly because of the position we’re in, but the FA Cup is such an iconic cup that we have to treat it with the respect it deserves.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward and make sure we’re doing everything we can to be in the next round.
United secured their first league win of the season against Durham in their last outing with Rio Hardy’s late goal lifting Coventry off the foot of the table.
And Bradford hopes the win will breed confidence in her players as they look to climb up the table and away from danger.
Bradford added: “We scored late on, we were ecstatic and we tried to be clever with our subs and made sure we were still controlling the game.
“Durham were changing their formation and throwing the kitchen sink at us and we managed the game very well.
“The performance alone was very good and it just allowed the players to see that when we execute everything we’ve been working we’re very effective and a very good team.”
However, Bradford admitted she was frustrated at not being given the chance to back up the Durham victory following their three-week break from action.
She said: “We’ve just focused on ourselves and what we need to improve on and all of the good things that came out of the Durham game.
“As a staff we had a little bit of time to breathe and get stuff done but I think in terms of momentum we would have liked to have gone straight into another fixture.
“It’s frustrating but it gave us an opportunity to focus on other things.”
Coventry’s match against Watford takes place on Sunday, December 12 with kick-off at 3pm at Gaywood Park.
