EXCLUSIVE: Tia Ginn and Francesca Vigo of London Bees ahead of Women’s FA Cup tie against Liverpool | OneFootball

Tia Ginn and Francesca Vigo are both enjoying a terrific season with London Bees.

Third in the FA Women’s National League Division One South East, they are seven points ahead of fourth-placed Chatham Town – and seven points behind second-placed Norwich City.

And over the second half of the season, they want to close that gap on the leaders.

“We do have some big games ahead, so I do think that we need to step up and make sure we win all our games just so we don’t slip any other points,” says Vigo.

“Performance-wise, we’ve been doing well,” adds Ginn. 

She’s been enjoying a great season herself between the sticks, with Bees conceding just 14 goals in their 13 games in the league so far.

“To be fair, I can’t take all the praise,” she’s quick to say. “The defence has been really solid this year.

London Bees | Kieran Falcon

“I feel good. The season’s been good for me. I feel like I’ve really progressed and I feel quite confident.”

Ginn joined Bees and reunited with head coach Dan McKimm, who she’d worked with at independent club London Seaward – now in the fifth tier as Atletico London.

“It was a lot different coming into a set-up like this,” she admits. “We’ve got a lot more resources.

“It’s a bit of a change, but it’s been good. It’s helped me be able to push on.”

Vigo is on loan from Watford, and joins fellow Golden Girls Lily Whitelock, Isabel Doolan and Daisy Hind in the Bees squad.

“When I first came, Lily had already been here for a season, so coming into the changing room, seeing a familiar face, it was nice,” she says. “It’s definitely nice to change scenery, come somewhere different and have to prove myself somewhere else.”

London Bees: We were excited for the Women’s FA Cup fourth round draw

The two will be part of the squad on Sunday as London Bees host Liverpool – bottom of the league in the WSL – in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup fourth round. It was a hard-fought win to get through in the last round as they beat Dartford 3-2 away after extra time.

Vigo recalls that it was a quiet bus ride home rather than a rowdy celebratory one: “We were all in a bit of shock – the game was intense and there [were] a lot of fans shouting at us. We were just happy to get the win, really, and progress and we were excited to see the next draw because you never know who you could have got and we ended up getting the WSL team.”

Ginn adds: “I’m really excited about it. There’s obviously a little bit of pressure with trying to show everyone what we’ve got, but it’s quite nice going into a game knowing that you’re the underdog because realistically we can really upset them if we show our quality – and I’m sure we can.”