The Blues narrowly missed out on the first piece of silverware of the season - suffering a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in the Subway League Cup showpiece.
After entering half-time a goal down following Mayra Ramirez’s opener, Aoba Fujino deservedly equalised for City with an impressive, dipping strike.
But with the tie in the balance entering the closing stages, the Londoners restored their lead when a cross unfortunately deflected off Yui Hasegawa and found the net.
It was a disappointing conclusion to our first of four successive meetings with Chelsea.
For Cushing, it’s a feeling he wants us to use as fuel before our Champions League quarter-final meeting with Sonia Bompastor’s team on Wednesday.
“I said to the players at the end that if this feeling of disappointment isn’t enough fuel to really motivate you going into Wednesday then nothing will be,” he said.
“Ultimately, if this performance doesn’t give you the belief we can beat this team [nothing will].
“This is why we play the game. We can’t always win, but when you don’t win, you have to really use it as fuel and fire to go and win the next one.”
Watch Cushing’s full post match interview in the video player above!
