Sunderland boss Mel Reay hopes her side can try to “cause some damage” when they face holders Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
The Championship outfit are the lowest-ranked side left in the competition and earned their spot in the final eight with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth in the last round.
The Black Cats now come up against United, who are enjoying a strong season in the Women’s Super League and are currently second, but Reay believes her side will “give it a good go” at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday.
🏆 Special moments leading us to the quarter-finals!
Our FA Cup journey so far – a thread… 🧵 pic.twitter.com/w7BgtUBb43
— Sunderland AFC Women (@SAFCWomen) March 5, 2025
The Sunderland boss told a press conference: “What better way to play against the holders of the FA Cup?
“They’ve got some really good individual players, our players can put themselves up against them, some of the best players in the world.
“It’s exciting, it’s a different feel this week in terms of going into the sessions because you’re going into something different, but we’ll prepare as we always do and give it a good go.
“We’ve got to be brave, have a go, we don’t want to go there and sit behind the ball for 90 minutes. We want to go and test ourselves against some of the best players.
“Yes we’ll have a structure when we haven’t got it, but when we have got it, we want to go and try and cause some damage.”
Sunderland faced United in the fourth round of the competition two years ago, but Reay revealed she has encountered United boss Marc Skinner as recently as this week.
“I’ve actually just spent two days with Marc Skinner on my pro licence so we’ve had a lot of banter over the last 48 hours,” she added.
“They’re going to take the game seriously, as I would expect, we’ve got full respect for each other so I’m expecting a very strong Manchester United team on Saturday night.”
Gearing up for the #WomensFACup ⚙️🏆#MUWomen pic.twitter.com/5Yq9w0dCdi
— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) March 7, 2025
United have won seven games out of eight in all competitions in 2025 but Skinner is expecting a passionate performance from second-tier Sunderland.
He said: “We absolutely want to respect the opponent we play against. We will take this game as serious as every game we play.
“It’s a quarter-final of an FA Cup, we are playing against an opponent that yes people see are in a lower division but knowing Mel and the way she sets her team up they will be full of passion and up for the game.”
