Exeter City Women will hunt for more FA Cup glory this Weekend, as they aim to progress to the Fourth Round for only the third time in the Club's history.
Facing a Southampton Women's team, themselves eight time winners of the FA Cup, the winners will face a trip to Northern Premier side West Bromwich Albion.
Southampton Women's FC have had an excellent season. Currently leading the National League Division One South West, their season began with impressive victories at Cheltenham and Swindon. A run of five successive home wins during early Autumn saw a rise to the top of the division, before Cup football began to take over. Recent FA Cup victories at Abingdon United and Cheltenham Town came either side of a County Cup defeat at Moneyfields, as the good form continued. However, in their last outing, the Hampshire side suffered only a second league defeat of the season, AFC Bournemouth winning by a single goal as the Cherries ramped up their own Title challenge.
Undoubtedly, the player for City to watch this weekend will be Sian Wylie. The forward has thirteen goals from her thirteen appearances this season and will lead the attack on Sunday. Rachel Okoro, a summer signing from Maidenhead United, will provide another threat, she has seven goals this season in support of Wylie. Britt Jeal has proven a high class addition to Aaron Smith's side, since arriving from Portsmouth in the close season she has picked up two Player of The Match awards and scored some important goals.
The two teams met in September in a league clash. Goals from Wylie and Jeal had given Southampton the lead after City had initially led through Mollie Taylor, but the City defender would come to the rescue in injury time to level the game and gain the Grecians a point.
With the two teams anticipating a promotion battle, and a place in the FA Cup Fourth Round on the line, this is set to be a fascinating encounter between two evenly matched sides. Abbie Britton and Aaron Wakley's side are on an eight match winning run and will be confident of matching their opponents at the weekend. Since City's arrival back to National League football they are yet to gain success over Southampton Women's FC, Sunday would be the perfect time to get that first win and further enhance the team's growing confidence.