Helen Bleazard praised her team’s preparation for what is a historic cup tie, the side’s first ever fourth round game in the competition.
They have sought to keep things as usual as possible in the build up to the game.
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Bleazard told the Daily Echo: “Training's been really good. We haven't really changed much.
“Obviously the occasion speaks for itself, but the best thing we can do as staff is just make sure that we do the same prep as we would any other week.
“The girls have been great. They've been really at it in training and making it a hard decision for me.”
Helen Bleazard. (Image: Richard Crease)
It perhaps has not been as easy to keep things normal for the squad, as they were surprised by the FA Cup trophy at the training ground in the week.
But Bleazard said she managed that situation to ensure they were ready to train, but also were able to enjoy seeing the cup in person.
“I didn't tell them until about 10 minutes before about the FA Cup because we had analysis and obviously we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves with that,” she said.
“We were there on our first training session of the week, so we had to make sure that we were prepped and ready to go.
“We saw the FA Cup, which was a fantastic opportunity for the girls, and then straight out to training, business as usual.
“So there is obviously with the hype of the game and that's naturally going to take over in certain moments, but again, the more we can keep it business as usual, I think that helps.”
Charlotte Harris opened the scoring (Image: Richard Crease)
Another unusual aspect of their preparation has been in how they are going to set up on Sunday.
Normally a more possession based side, the Cherries will likely see much less of the ball against City.
But they are ready for that, too, as Bleazard explained: “We've talked about it, it's going to be a game where we're not going to have as much of the ball as usual.
“That is something as staff we've had to adapt to with our tactics and how we want to play.
“Obviously when the success that we've had over the last few years, we've been a very in possession, dominant team, so that mindset naturally has to shift.
“The good thing is we've got a really good group who have bought into everything I've asked from the start of the season.
“I knew it would be quite easy to get them on board and change it. And this week's gone really, really well so far.
“So we've got one more training session tomorrow [Friday] and then, yeah, hopefully into Sunday we'll be prepped.”