The forward bagged her first hat-trick for the Club in Saturday’s 8-0 Vitality Women’s FA Cup triumph over Aston Villa, opening the scoring with a delightful overhead kick to ignite a superb Player of the Match performance.
The holders were ruthless from the first whistle at the Academy Stadium, boasting six different goalscorers to continue our excellent form and kick off our defence of the trophy in style.
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Naturally, Kelly admitted she was delighted to bag her first City treble – but ever humble, says she is more pleased to have witnessed her teammates shine as a collective.
“It’s a great feeling to get my first hat-trick with this Club and put us into the next round,” she said. “I’m really thriving in this environment.
“The FA Cup is incredible. It means a lot to me personally and also to us as a team. This environment is very competitive and we want to go on and win the competition.
“We were really flowing in the game. It was great – we were straight on the front foot and we didn’t take our foot off the gas.
“We look to improve every game and be fluid in our movement and I thought we were. We were patient and worked the ball across the pitch and found the right time to go for goal.
“It was great for us to be patient. We weren’t lashing a things and even when we knew we had a few goals, we kept working – not trying to force anything or getting too carried away.
“It’s great to work with such great players. We’re really starting to gel, working together. It’s great to see teammates doing well.
“We’re peaking at the right time. It’s a crucial time in the season and we have to push on and be at our best.”
As the holders of the competition, winning the last two tournaments – and three of the last four – City are amongst the favourites to lift the trophy again.
However, while the youngster agrees she would love to repeat the feat, lifting the trophy with the Club in November, she asserts the team are not looking beyond the next fixture.
“We’re not getting too caught up about thinking about Wembley,” she stated.
“It’s a huge competition and everyone wants to be at Wembley, winning the FA Cup. Any game in the competition – in the men’s or women’s game – is great to be involved in.
“We’ll focus on each performance – how to get there – and take each game as it comes.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s crunch, potential FA Women’s Super League title decider against Chelsea, the triumph over Villa issued a real statement of intent from Taylor’s side, providing a timely confidence boost in the process, as Kelly explained.
“It’s a great result to take into that game,” Kelly declared. “Every game is huge for us now.
“We know what it takes us to win the title and we’re focused on how we can break down Chelsea – what we can do to get the result we want.
“We have to look after each other and our bodies, getting the recovery right for Wednesday and the games following on.
“We know what we can do to become better – we’ll focus on recovery and how we analyse games.
“We’ll look after ourselves to make sure we’re in the best possible position to win the league.”
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