Arsenal Ladies v Sunderland Women

ARSENAL LADIES v SUNDERLAND WOMEN

NEWS: 15 January 2010

Sunderland travel to Borehamwood on Sunday, to take on Arsenal in the FA Women’s Cup Fourth Round, which was postponed last week due to the weather.

The Lady Black Cats produced the shock result in many seasons when they beat the Gunners 2-1 in the Premier League clash at Hetton in November.

Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round clash – a repeat of last season’s Cup Final which Arsenal won 2-1 – sees Sunderland face a mighty task of trying to win on the Gunners’ patch. In the league encounter at Arsenal’s Borehamwood home ground, Sunderland lost 5-1, yet Manager Mulhern says it was that defeat which inspired the win at Hetton just a week later. “We had taken the lead and were running them close for a lot of the game. The 5-1 score line was very harsh on us, in fact, we gave a great account of ourselves – and we gained a lot of confidence and belief in ourselves. That all came together when Arsenal came up here and we deserved to beat them.”

Sunderland go into the game having not played since the 2-0 win at Birmingham on December 13 which guaranteed they would end the season on top of the Premier League. “We haven’t been able to train properly for weeks,” admitted Mulhern. “We have had a bit of indoor five-a-side but that’s about it. But everybody’s been in the same boat – so we’ll see which team is the most rusty tomorrow! We’ll certainly give it a go. It is another opportunity for us.”

Sunday’s game will be decided on the day. The winners are at home to either Leeds Carnegie or Watford in the fifth round.

Vicki Greenwell (knee) and Sarah Unwin (hamstring) are again ruled out but are both back in training. Striker Sophie Williams is unavailable.

Sunderland's Reserve fixture away to Blackburn Rovers, has been postponed due to a frozen pitch.