ReactionMatt Beard on FA Cup win: 'It was all about getting through to the next round'

The Reds had to dig deep to find a way through their lower-league opponents in Sunday’s fifth-round tie away from home.

A moment of magic from Marie Höbinger finally ended the hosts’ firm resistance in the 84th minute as the midfielder fired into the corner from outside the box.

Fellow substitute Mia Enderby sealed the win in added time with her own confident strike, and Beard’s side move through to the quarter-finals on March 9.

After stating his respect for the efforts of Rugby Borough, the manager said post-match: “These are always tricky ties. Especially when you come away from home, on a kind of surface we’re not used to playing on. It’s quite a small pitch as well.

“We’ve said all week that it wasn’t going to be an easy game so we prepared the players for that. I do feel we were disciplined and professional.

“It’s like in any game, you can do things better, but the conditions were tough today; it’s freezing cold and the wind, it’s an open place here so it made it difficult for both sides.

“It was just about getting through to the next round today and I’m pleased that we’ve managed to do that.”

True opportunities at either end of the pitch were in short supply for much of the lunchtime encounter at Nationwide Windows Arena.

• Read our match report here

But the quality of Höbinger’s goal was worth waiting for, and Beard was asked if it was always going to require a special piece of technique to break the deadlock.

“Yeah, we hit the post in the first half, Leanne Kiernan has hit the underside of the bar just before,” he said. “We know Herby can do that, she’s a fantastic striker of the ball and it was a fantastic finish.”

The Reds boss had opted to make a quadruple substitution during the half-time interval, a tactical reshuffle designed to unlock Rugby Borough.

He said: “We didn’t create enough in the first half, I think we had three shots, so we changed the system at half-time.

“We just felt we wanted ball carriers with Leanne Kiernan, Lucy Parry and Mia Enderby, to cause them a little bit of a different problem. But then also, we wanted two No.10s just in the pockets and Marie and Julia [Bartel] are so good in the pockets on the ball.

“We just felt that would cause them problems and it did, we created more chances. That was the reason for the changes.”

• Next up, Manchester City away - ticket details for February 16 match here