Manchester United’s Aoife Mannion: ‘Losing the final last year makes us so hungry’ | Manchester United Women
[ad_1]
“It’s in the back of our minds that last year we were so close and yet so far,” says Aoife Mannion as Manchester United prepare for a second straight FA Cup final.
Last year United lost 1-0 against Chelsea, Sam Kerr’s goal in the 68th minute put dreams of a first major trophy on hold. United have struggled in the Women’s Super League this season, losing 1-0 to Liverpool in their last game to move into fifth place with a game in hand but first win over Chelsea took them to the final at Wembley.
Taking strength and confidence from that is inevitable, but Mannion says the Cup race will have no bearing on Tottenham v Tottenham.
“I don’t think the FA Cup final will be a cumulative effect of results and performances on the road,” says the defender. “The final is a complete one-off game. So even though we got some good results, for example we beat Chelsea for the first time, I don’t think it will have anything to do with the game. It will all be about us and Spurs and remembering good times from the past won’t really play a part in it.”
That’s not to say they didn’t celebrate the feat. “It was obviously very nice at the time and we obviously celebrated what it meant to us as a club, beating a team we hadn’t beaten before,” she says. “That good feeling lasts for a few days, but as with everything in football, in a few days there’s another game to go into.”
Losing to Chelsea might not matter, but losing to them last year is a huge motivator. “This experience is like such a massive pilot,” says Mannion, a 79th-minute substitute for left-back Hannah Blundell at Wembley last May. “The fact that we didn’t make the final last year gives us even more momentum and makes us so hungry to try and win.”
Mannion’s season was full of ups and downs. In fact, the last five years have seen more downs than ups, with the defender suffering back-to-back ACL injuries in October 2019 and February 2022. A torn quad in September last year forced her out until February, but a recent run of three starts in succession against Everton, Chelsea and Tottenham, backed her into contention and flourished.
“If you asked me in February how my body felt, I would have said 90% sharp, not 100% sharp,” says the 28-year-old. “But in the last two months, coming back into the mix, I feel like I’m getting sharper. I feel at the races basically, physically and mentally, for which I am grateful.”
The process of recovering from injury and getting back into the team has been excruciatingly slow. “I didn’t come back as quickly as I would have liked, even when I came back with the team, and then all of a sudden things turned around and I was able to be on the pitch more in a few weeks than I had in maybe the two years before that… When you get that taste of being on the field, you want more and more.
“If you play 108 minutes in a game but the game goes 110 minutes, you want those extra two minutes. I feel in a really good place now, a really motivated place and I feel very happy to be in the mix for FA Cup Final talks.”
after the promotion of the newsletter
United overcame Tottenham in London in December in the Championship, but the reverse fixture three weeks ago was much more difficult for them, Spurs coming from behind to take the lead at Leigh Sports Village to Maya Le Tissier The equalizer in the 92nd minute ensured a 2-2 draw.
United are firm favorites at Wembley but Mannion says: “There will be no room for complacency in the final. In a way, it was a dress rehearsal. We’ve seen how good they are in terms of the players and the quality they have, so hopefully that really, really fires us up even more.”
For Mannion, enjoying the moment is important. The enforced time away from the game has taught her a lot, including the importance of finding balance. “As you get older, you just get to know yourself a little more,” she says. “You get a little wiser with age and experience. So maybe I feel a little more balanced. But I always find that when you get back to training, you’re always so excited, no matter what experiences you’ve had or what you’ve been doing to fill the time.”
What did she do to fill her time? “I coach my little village soccer team,” she says. This began in 2022 when the demand for a women’s team led the club to consider creating one. By that summer’s Euro final, they had enough interest to fill more than one squad. Now, almost two years later? “We have five teams,” she says.
[ad_2]
