Ipswich Town Women host high-flying Portsmouth in the FAWNL Cup quarter-finals at the AGL Arena in Felixstowe this afternoon (KO 2pm).
The game is the first of three between the sides between now and the end of the season with Pompey, who are currently top of FAWNL Southern Premier Division on goal difference from Hashtag United but with two games in hand, back in Suffolk next Sunday for a league match before the Blues make a trip to Hampshire in March.
All-time top scorer Natasha Thomas says it’s important to concentrate on this weekend’s match and not look ahead to those other fixtures.
"We’re looking forward to it,” she said. "For us ultimately, we’re looking at this game, not next week or the one in a month’s time.
"For us, it’s focusing on the cup first, focus on that and then after that the weekend after we’re playing Portsmouth again at home in the league. We’re just concentrating on the cup for now and we’ll go on to the rest later.”
Regarding Sunday’s visitors and their impressive season, she added: "Portsmouth have always been a really good team and it’s always been a very hard battle against them, home and away.
"For us, in the cup, it’s just to make sure that we make sure we can do the best that we can.
"We know the key players that they’ve got, they’ve got some very good players without doubt, but so have we, so we’ve just got to make sure we can counteract that and hopefully get into the hat.”
Pompey have conceded only seven goals in all competitions this season, while Thomas will be looking to notch her 20th of the campaign having taken her tally to 19 during last week’s 6-1 hammering of London Bees.
Thomas knows Portsmouth will be a tough nut to crack but has confidence in her and her fellow attackers’ abilities.
"Definitely, but at the same time, I believe in all of us as a forward unit,” she said. "We know what we can do at the training ground, it’s just making sure we’re bringing that on the game day now.
"We’re not going to be panicking at all, we’re just going to make sure that we’re playing our football, how we like to progress up the pitch and hopefully we can show that on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Erin Williams joined Bowers & Pitsea on a dual registration agreement for the remainder of the season earlier in the week.