Ann-Marie Heatherson says Bristol can beat Arsenal in Final.
The FA Women’s Cup sponsored by E.ON 2011 Final
2pm, Saturday 21 May
Ricoh Arena, Coventry City FC
Winning club will receive £5,000 from The FA prize fund
Tickets are priced £5 for adults and £2.50 for children, or £10 for a family of four Arsenal will be looking to extend their record haul of FA Women’s Cup triumphs to eleven at Ricoh Arena on Saturday, and they will be appearing in their sixth consecutive Final, but Bristol Academy forward Ann-Marie Heatherson believes the Gunners can be beaten.
The West Country side have made it through to their first-ever FA Women’s Cup Final, finally making it past the Semi-Final stage at the sixth attempt, and now Heatherson is confident they can break another duck by lifting their maiden trophy, drawing confidence from previous meetings between the sides and from
Everton’s defeat over Arsenal in last season’s finale.
“You have to respect Arsenal,” began Heatherson, who has scored in every round of the competition so far. “Just look at their history. But they are beatable, as Everton proved last year and
Birmingham proved a few weeks ago. On the day, if we do a job we can beat them, too.
“You have to give credit to them for what they have achieved over the years but we are a new team and we are striving for great things ourselves.
“They have got great players but we have done really well against them in the League,” she continued. “
We drew with them last week and we definitely didn’t deserve to lose the first game. We know what we have got to do. We have got to hustle them and if we give it our best then they are going to struggle to handle us.
“Arsenal is Arsenal. But we are not going to be intimidated by them. We have got a job to do and we are going to go out there and do it.”
Bristol began their Cup campaign with an 8-0 rout of Sheffield Wednesday in the Fifth Round and followed this up with a 2-1 victory over Millwall, with Heatherson scoring the winner against her former club as Mark Sampson’s side came from behind to book their spot in the Semi-Final.
Just days before their last-four clash with Liverpool, though,
Bristol suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat to Birmingham in their opening match of The FA WSL, a result which could have affected them psychologically ahead of their trip to Southport. However, they bounced back impressively and
three first-half goals effectively put paid to Liverpool dreams of a Final outing.
“That first game [against Birmingham] just wasn’t us,” reflected Heatherson. “It was a completely different team to what we have turned into. We have played really well since. We are picking up some good points, creating chances and scoring goals.
“After that defeat to Birmingham we knew we had to pick things up and our next game happened to be the Semi-Final. We all said to each other that we had to give our all in every game from then on and that’s exactly what we have done.”
Now Bristol are looking forward to their long overdue day in the spotlight.
“We are over the moon to have reached The Final,” admitted Heatherson. “We all can’t wait for it to kick-off.
“It will be an amazing day. There will be loads of people in the crowd, the game is on TV and the day is built around the two teams.
“The FA Cup Final is the biggest day in women’s football and we are going to make sure that we enjoy every single second of the day.”
