Following last weekend’s setback at league leaders Birmingham City Ladies, which ended the Blues’ four-game winning streak, the England midfielder is determined to return to winning ways as soon as possible, whilst helping MCWFC to take a step closer to progression in the competition with their third victory in four.
“We were very disappointed with our performance against Birmingham,” she conceded. “We don’t want to use the break as an excuse because every team had a break but we know we never got going in the first 45 minutes so we didn’t deserve to win.
“Looking ahead now, the game against Sunderland is huge for us. I think it’s quite good that we have got a few cup games now to get used to being back and playing again.
“It’s hard to replicate a match situation in training so we need to get the ball down and pass it around well in these next two games and hopefully that will set us up nicely for the league games we’ve got coming up.”
Nick Cushing’s side currently lie second in Group Two, level on points with Sunderland and table-toppers Doncaster Rovers Belles. With only the winner and best runner-up of each group progressing to the next stage, Scott stresses the value of every point but hopes the Blues can clinch three on Sunday to prove the doubters wrong.
“We had a bad start [in the competition] when we were beaten by Doncaster Belles and I think a lot of people wrote us off thinking we wouldn’t progress,” she stated. “But we stuck at it and managed two good wins against Liverpool and Everton.
“They were two very tough games so hopefully now we can push on and finish the job.
Plus, we’ve highlighted the fact that if we beat Sunderland, we could be through to the semi-finals so we’re looking at this game as a quarter-final.
Scott, who started her career with the Black Cats - her hometown club - is well aware of the threat the north-east outfit will pose but insists familiarity and friendships are left on the touchline when players lock horns with their former employers.
“I’m good friends with a lot of the girls and I coach a lot of them as well when I go back,” she revealed. “It will be funny for me.
“Nick Mulhern was mine and
Tickets for this fixture are priced at £6 for adults and £4 for under-16s, whilst concessionary discounts are also available with admission for disabled supporters, 18 to 21-year-olds and over 65s priced at £5.
Family discounts are also being offered, with ‘family’ tickets (two adults and two under-16s) costing just £16 and ‘parent and child’ tickets (one adult and one under-16) just £8.
There’ll be tonnes of pre-match activities on offer with City in the Community and fans can have their photograph taken with the Barclays Premier League trophy!
Kick-off is at 2pm at the Manchester Regional Arena, Rowsley Street, M11 3FF. Tickets can be purchased online or at the Etihad Stadium box office.
