City’s impressive unbeaten run drew to a close in Solihull as Ellen White struck two past the visitors in order to snatch three much needed points.
The loss means City now sit in second below Chelsea, but we have the opportunity the leapfrog the West London side once again if we secure a win at the weekend.
“It’s an important game whatever happens,” Cushing stated. “Those head-to-heads are always going to play a part in the title race.
“We have to make sure we play well because that will give us a chance of winning the game - they’re always difficult games.”
Speaking after the game at Damson Park, the City manager explained that his side didn’t match Birmingham’s motivation, and that would be something to change on Saturday.
“Just because we beat Birmingham in the last four games didn’t mean we were going to win a fifth.,” Nick added. “We’ve played them that many times over the past 18 months that we know every game against them is tough.
“We expected a tough game, we knew what they were going to do and we knew they would be motivated after Sunday. We just didn’t match that motivation.
“It’s the same for Chelsea.
“In every game, teams are motivated to beat us because we are a winning team. We know that. We expect it because it’s part of football.
“Maybe teams raise their game more of work a little harder against us. We’re only a winning team because we do things right.
“We didn’t do those things and we have to be honest - we need to be a little bit better in the build-up and create more clear-cut chances.
“We have to recover and get back to winning ways.”
The boss is hoping that a home crowd will spur City to get back on track at the weekend.
“We always get good crowds in Manchester and we expect another good crowd and that the fans can push us on as much as they normally do.
“If the crowd push us on, we’ll hope to repay them with a performance.
“We didn’t lose anything at Birmingham and won’t lose anything on Saturday. The players should be proud of what they’ve achieved up to now.”
City will prepare to bounce back at the Academy Stadium on Saturday 24 February, kick-off 12.30pm.
Be there to cheer them on in the title race! Tickets are on sale now and can are available at mancity.com/tickets.
