‘We are driven to respond’ – Birmingham City focused on bouncing back against Chatham says Merricks | OneFootball

Birmingham City head coach Amy Merricks says that the team will be fully-focused on bouncing back when they play host to Chatham Town in the fifth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup on Saturday evening.

Blues slipped to a 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace in their latest Barclays WSL2 fixture on Monday night. Birmingham City still have plenty of work to do if they are to seal a long-awaited return to the Barclays Women’s Super League.

Birmingham City have a good opportunity to return to winning ways against Chatham Town this weekend and head coach Merricks says that the team’s focus is on producing a response.

“There was a lot of disappointment and frustration in both the result and performance [against Crystal Palace] but that game is done now and what we have to concentrate on is responding,” Merricks said when speaking in the pre-match press conference.

“I have real belief in this squad. I believe in the playing group, the staff group and I believe we have exactly what we need. Our objective doesn’t change; we’ve got to go back to basics and what we are good at. We are focused on that and making sure we deliver the DNA and the principles that we need to see in a Birmingham side.

“As you’d expect, we were frustrated but we are driven to respond and make sure we respond really well this weekend.”

Latest opponents Chatham Town are semi-professional and play their football in the FA Women’s National League Division One South East. Despite facing a lower-ranked opponent, Birmingham City boss Merricks says that the preparation remains the same.

She said “No matter who we play, we do our homework. We are very diligent. I’ve watched four of their games so far this season and they have a number of players that I have not only coached throughout my career, I’ve also played with some of those players. I also know Keith Boanas really well. They used to be Gillingham and that’s who I used to play and coach.

“We’ve done our homework, we’ve done the work that we would usually do on any opposition and we take the game very seriously. We know we are going to have to earn the right in the performance, our approach doesn’t change. For me, we need to respond within our performance but equally, we want to earn the right to get into the quarter-finals of the competition.

“We are not taking them lightly at all. We know we have to be at our best and we want to be at our best. I have no doubt that they are focused on what they want to do but we are focused on what we want to do. We want to pull on our strengths in this game.”

Victory will send Birmingham City into the quarter-finals. Merricks reiterated the fact that her side must first perform well and earn the right to reach the last-eight.

She said “It’d mean everything to the club but we have to do the work and earn the right. Our focus right now is on the performance that we put in.

“We’ve won this competition previously, we’ve got great history in this competition. For us, we want to get as far as we can and speak about winning the competitions that we are in. That doesn’t change and I have full belief in the squad, full belief in what we have and what we do. It’s about getting the performance right and that’s what we need to do on Saturday.”

Birmingham City’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Chatham Town kicks-off at 5.15pm on Saturday evening. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.