Arsenal Ladies’ Alex Scott believes attack will prove the best form of defence when the team takes on Notts County in the FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup quarter-final at the Hive tonight (Friday).
Scott and her teammates train at Arsenal’s grounds in London Colney, and most of the squad live in the St Albans district.
The Lady Pies, with several England internationals to choose from in their frontline, were knocked out of the SSE Women’s FA Cup by the Gunners on penalties, after their quarter-final had initially finished 2-2.
Full-back Scott knows her team were up against it that day, and feels taking the game to Rick Passmoor’s side in a repeat of last year’s final will give them their best chance to reach the last four.
Scott said: “They’ve got a frontline with Rachel Williams, Ellen White and Jess Clarke and they can trouble any defence they meet.
“But when we played them at Meadow Park, we were able to deal with them, so we’ll review the footage from that game and take the positives into Friday.
“We want to keep it in their half and keep it up the pitch and not be defending all the time.
“We’ve got to step up and do our jobs when it’s needed.
“The key to success has been a winning mentality.
“It is one-off games that you have to show up and perform in, and that’s what we’ve got to take into league performances.
“It’s about being consistent and treating every game like a one-off game where we’ve got to go in and get the win.”
As well as finishing runners-up to Arsenal in this competition last year, Notts County suffered defeat in the 2015 FA Cup final to Chelsea.
And with the Lady Pies seemingly set to attain a safe mid-table league position, winger Clarke believes the Continental Tyres Cup merits their full attention again.
She said: “It’s definitely exciting to get going again in a cup competition.
“In the league our results haven’t been the best, so this is a real chance to redeem ourselves and hopefully get one step further in the cup.
“If we can gain a little bit of momentum from the game on Friday, that can certainly help us going back into games in the league too, so we just want to be building that confidence back again.
“Arsenal are always a strong side that have good individuals too, so they will push us hard in any game we play them.
“But I feel whenever we play them we do give them a tough challenge and something to think about.”
• Arsenal v Notts County, FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup, Quarter-final; The Hive, Barnet FC; Friday August 5, Kickoff 7pm
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