Manchester United make the trip up north to face Sunderland in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday.
While it is the first time United will face the second-tier side, manager Marc Skinner is familiar with Melanie Copeland's set up having faced her numerous times with former club Birmingham City.
Skinner said: “I've known Mel a long time and her teams are always exceptionally well coached, well driven, purposeful in everything they did, so I'm expecting exactly the same to be honest.
“They're very good in structure, they can flip in and out of shape. So you could expect five or four at the back against different teams to play different structures so we will prepare for both. I'm expecting a tough game., I'm expecting to keep it tight, I'm expecting them to make it uncomfortable for us. But I'm expecting us to try and raise our standards to go to a level that hopefully, Sunderland can't achieve.”
Skinner has brought three players into his roster during the January window and the fans could see Estelle Cascarino make her United debut at the weekend, while Jayde Riviere and Lisa Naalsund are expected to take five to six weeks before getting minutes.
On his new additions to the club, Skinner said: “These are players that we felt could add not just in the short term, but also long term. So Jade's I'd imagine [it will be] around mid-March to late March for her to be ready. That's our plan. Also, Lisa has just come out of an off-season because Norwegian seasons are slightly different to us, so she's again going to be about five or six weeks away.
“Estelle is I think eligible even to be involved on Sunday. She can play at left side centre half. She's played left back before but it's not a position where I feel that she would want to be, to be at her very best for us, and we see her as more of a central midfielder.
“She'd be able to drop into a temporary back three for example, she'd be able to give us that balance of the left side in nature, her ability to be aggressive in the tackle to be tight one vs one situations was all the types of characteristics we've been looking for.
“We can open up switches quicker, we can take the ball both sides, we can switch across the pitch so much quicker, and she has the ability to break so when teams go one for one against us, we can beat the press and reverse ball so like it's the balance of our team and how we want to progress and she will add a lot of detail.”
United have bolstered their squad despite currently sitting top of the Women’s Super League on goal difference after a 1-0 win over Reading. Rachel Williams patiently found the net after running across the Royals' box three minutes after coming on as a sub.
Sunderland come into the game after a 3-1 win over Birmingham City on Sunday in the Championship, currently sitting eighth in the league with 13 points from 12 games, it is also their first FA Cup fixture of the season.
Skinner continued: “I'm expecting a really well-drilled, really well-organised team that's very much up for trying to progress themselves. So it will be tough but we will focus on the qualities that we have and try to give as much energy as we can in every game from now to the end of the season.”
The FA Cup fourth round clash between Sunderland and Manchester United kicks off at 1pm at the Eppleton Colliery Football Ground.
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