AFC Bournemouth are hoping the magic of the Adobe Women\u2019s FA Cup can carry them through the fourth round proper, with the club reaching this stage of the competition for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n
The Cherries are enjoying an incredible run, undefeated in all competitions across the league and cups, sitting pretty at the top of the FA Women\u2019s National League Southern Premier Division heading into this weekend\u2019s tie.<\/p>\n
And the club are managed by an FA Cup finalist, no less. First team head coach Helen Bleazard lined up for Bristol City \u2013 then Bristol Academy \u2013 in the 2011 showpiece against Arsenal, which they eventually lost before making it to the final again the following year with Chelsea, beaten on penalties by Birmingham City.<\/p>\n
This season, her Bournemouth side have beaten Millbrook, Leyton Orient and Fulham to set up a fourth round tie with WSL leaders Manchester City.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done our homework and had our first meeting as a full squad on our plans to go into this weekend and we\u2019ll do everything we can to get them in a position to be as aggressive and ready to try and win the game on Sunday,\u201d said Helen, who played for Bournemouth between 2022 and 2025 before transitioning to a coach.<\/p>\n
\nManager Helen Bleazard takes charge of a training session\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how good their squad is, but we also know how good our squad is and it\u2019s the magic of the FA Cup and if we execute our game plan, there\u2019s no reason why we can\u2019t be successful on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep it business as usual and obviously the occasion is going to speak for itself with the hype that it\u2019s going to bring, but the more that we can keep it to a normal week then the best prepared the team is going to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about the quality that they\u2019re going to bring, but we focus on us. We respect our opposition whoever it is and we do our analysis and our prep, but we focus on the girls and we\u2019ll make sure we\u2019ll full of confidence going into the week for the girls to execute our game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Striker Jenna Markham could be the key to unlocking the City defence. Having began her career out in Canada, she returned to the UK and tried out for Yeovil Town\u2019s academy, joining their under-14s side.<\/p>\n
And it was at Yeovil that Jenna \u2013 who scored 24 goals in 26 games last season for the Cherries to scoop the golden boot \u2013 played alongside Bournemouth boss Helen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely going to be some nerves playing against people that you watch play on TV week in and week out and a lot of role models for us all, but I think the main feeling, especially for me is excitement,\u201d said Jenna, who joined Bournemouth from Exeter City.<\/p>\n
\nStriker Jenna Markham in training ahead of the fourth round\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a privilege to share a pitch with some of the best players in the country, so I\u2019m really excited and looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a striker, [Vivianne] Miedema and Bunny Shaw are probably my two favourites that I\u2019m excited to play against, they\u2019re two of the best in the world at the moment so it\u2019ll be really exciting to play against them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFC Bournemouth are hoping the magic of the Adobe Women\u2019s FA Cup can carry them through the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[129047,72591,129049,129051,85,46,2617,105,129048,129050,25075],"class_list":["post-239273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adobe-womens-fa-cup","tag-bournemouth","tag-cherries","tag-fourth-round-proper","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-manchester-city","tag-sports","tag-womens-fa-cup","tag-womens-fa-cup-fourth-round","tag-wsl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}