The Blues take on Sheffield United in Group A on Wednesday 5 December, kick-off at 7pm GMT, following a comprehensive win over league leaders Arsenal at the weekend.
With another big FA Women’s Super League game against Birmingham just around the corner, Cushing plans to use his squad’s depth to his advantage against the Blades.
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“We’ve almost had a perfect apprenticeship of playing midweek games, with two years of experience of playing three games per week,” Cushing explained. “It’s nothing new.
“It’s been a luxury to have five-day breaks and we’ve had the opportunity to train, coach and improve players.
“We’re seeing the results of that but we’ll just flip back to how we used to work and we’ll use the squad this week for sure, utilising players who haven’t had a lot of minutes.”
After reaching the final of the competition last season, Cushing is eager to press on in the Continental Cup, but states that his side can’t be complacent heading into the match.
“We have to prepare for Sheffield because we want to go far in that competition,” the City boss added.
“We always expect difficult games. A lot of people perceive that there is a big gap in quality between the top end and the bottom end of the FA Women’s Super League but look at the game we played against Yeovil – they’re a good team and they caused us a lot of problems.
“Look at previous results too. I constantly remind the team about London Bees’ victory over Chelsea in the Continental Cup – it can happen. We’ve all seen giant-killings.
“We have to play our game and do the right things to try and get the right result.”
