Cardiff City FC Women continue their defence of the FAW Women’s Cup by welcoming Abergavenny Women to Cardiff International Sports Campus on Sunday afternoon (11/12), 2pm KO.
The Bluebirds head into the contest on the back a hard-fought point at Swansea City Ladies, in which Iain Darbyshire’s side had to show huge character to fight back from a goal down.
Despite winger Katy Hosford opening the scoring, exciting talent Pheobie Poole equalised with a brilliant effort from the edge of the box.
So far in the FAW Women’s Cup campaign, City have defeated Cascade YC Women and Pontypridd United Women, both by a scoreline of 5-0.
Opponents Abergavenny Women progressed to the quarter-finals with victories over Swansea University and Carmarthen Town.
In the last meeting between the two sides, City came out on top on a historic night at Cardiff City Stadium, in which a record attendance of 5,075 broke the Welsh domestic league record.
Speaking ahead of the Cup contest, Iain Darbyshire said: “We’re targeting silverware this year, and this weekend is another good opportunity for us to take another step towards that.
“Regardless of our results against Abergavenny this year, we’re not taking them lightly. They’ve just got their first point of the season and I know they’ll be pumped up and excited for the game.
“They’ll have a gameplan and it’s up to us to find the solutions that we need to win the game. We’re not taking the game lightly at all, they’ve got a good squad, some good players and have been unfortunate in some games this year, so we’ll be taking them seriously.”
Goalkeeper Ceryn Chamberlain, who has played a huge part in the Bluebirds keeping nine clean sheets so far this season, added: “It’s a great chance for us. It’s great at the moment to be doing well in both the league and the cups. We’ve got the opportunity to go out and play, which will hopefully see us get further in the cup again.
“We’ve had two good wins against them this season, but it’s a cup game and anything can happen. We’ve got to be on our game and make sure that we secure the result, because they’ll want to do the same.
"It’s great that we’ve played so well so far, but it’s about moving forward and each game, we’ve got to be on top of what we’re doing in order to get a result. Regardless of the opposition, we just want to perform, keep a clean sheet and get some goals.”