Skinner: We need to maintain our recent form

The Reds travel to the Silverlake Stadium for the fifth round of the Adobe Women's FA Cup on Sunday and Skinner is determined his team goes one stage further in the competition this season. Last season, we reached the final, losing out to Chelsea at Wembley.

Ahead of the game, Skinner spoke about recent performances, what to expect from Southampton and confirmed our injury news.

WE NEED TO MAINTAIN OUR FORM

“We’re in a results game but performances have been good. There have been a few this season where we've been below par. And unfortunately, as you know, we've set a really high bar for us to follow from last season. So I'm really pleased with the attitude of the players, as always. I can never really question that. You see our performances. I can't question that.

“Performances and results don't always tie in, but it's your best metric for trying to get results. And so from our perspective, I'm really happy, really happy with the way the players have taken it on board. And we have to continue to perform in this vein and pick up points. I need us to maintain this form that we're in.”

I EXPECT NO FEAR FROM SOUTHAMPTON

“Marianne [Spacey-Kale] has got them playing some really nice football and they're a team that is very good to watch. They're very good on the eye and they have some very good players. I like the kind of youthful vibe about them as well. There's no fear from them. So I expect a 'no fear' game from them against us on Sunday. But because of that, we have to put a performance in where we almost strike fear into them. We have to perform like that, so I'm really looking forward to the game.

“I'm sure Southampton are too, but we've got to be our professional selves. We've got to put every bit of attitude, aggression  and professionalism into the game. And then of course we have the qualities to win it. So we know it's not going to be easy, but we're going to be focused on what we can achieve. We want to try and do all we can in our power to play well against Southampton on Sunday.”

AOIFE IS BACK IN CONTENTION

“Everyone is currently okay, We are obviously carrying a few knocks, but apart from that, everyone's okay. We've got two training sessions left before the weekend, so we'll obviously see after that, but it's nice to welcome Aoife [Mannion] back in. She’s played a couple of Under-21 games now and got the minutes in her legs. We still have to build up slowly and carefully but she’s in a position to be involved in the squad this weekend.”

MIGHT WE SEE AHERNE?

“It depends on the game situation, of course. Alyssa has come back in from Everton, so she's still getting used to how we play again. We sent her on loan to get that experience and she didn't quite play the minutes that we thought she might but she grew a lot, learnt a lot. She's bringing that back into here, learning how we play again. If the right moment arises, then of course we'll look to put her into the game. But apart from that, we're going to still continue to grow in training and off the field. And as we said, she's definitely a future project for Manchester United.”

NO GAME IS OF HIGHER IMPORTANCE THAN OTHERS

“I'm not placing any more importance on this game because it's a cup game. It's a knock-out competition. So no, I don't enter games thinking that. I don't think that's healthy. I think you have to enter the game knowing that you can put the best performance in and try to win the game. That is so important, not only for the players and the staff here but of course, it's important to our fans too. Of course it is.

“We know that and we want to win things here. We're ambitious. So what we want to do here is focus on the game, focus on the performance against a very good team away on Sunday. If we do that, then we have every chance to progress. We don't know what's going to happen beyond that. All we can do is control our performance.”

HOME GAMES

Make sure you come down to Leigh Sports Village, and Old Trafford on 18 May, to support United Women in our remaining WSL home games this season.

Sun 17 Mar: Bristol City (12:00 GMT)*
Sun 31 Mar: Everton (14:00 BST)*
Sun 21 Apr: Tottenham (12:00 BST)*
Sun 18 May: Chelsea (15:00 BST)**

*Times and dates TBC
**This game is being played at Old Trafford

You can buy tickets for all of these games here.