Kate Longhurst is on a mission with West Ham United.
The Hammers midfielder will appear in the second Women’s FA Cup final of her career when the east Londoners take on Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday, but she wants to take away better memories from this one.
Longhurst was on the scoresheet for Chelsea in the 2012 showpiece, only for the Blues to come up short in a penalty shootout against Birmingham City.
Now, she is determined to help the Hammers shake off their underdog tag against the Citizens and help them land silverware in their debut WSL season.
“I was lucky enough to score a goal in the 2012 final, but it doesn’t matter when you don’t win the game,” she admitted.
“It’s nice to get to cup finals but obviously when you get there you want to win.
“We’re the underdogs and I don’t mind that label because there’s no pressure on us. All the pressure is on them because they’ll be expected to win.
“Last time we played them here we lost 3-1, but if you look at the balance of the game we were probably the better team. If we defend well, attack well, of course we’ve got a chance. We’re not going there to lose, we’re going there because we want to win the game.”
Longhurst’s previous FA Cup final appearance came at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate, so with the game now played at Wembley Stadium, she is relishing the prospect of appearing under the famous arch.
She added: “It’s really good that it’s at Wembley now. You see a lot of fans coming, a lot of children interacting and with a lot of people there it just gets bigger and bigger each year.
“If you provide a positive experience for the fans then hopefully they keep coming back.
“We got a really good following in the semi-final, we could hear them all game and it made it like a home game for us. Hopefully we can get that atmosphere going at Wembley and they’ll be singing West Ham songs because I know it will help us a lot.”