Argyle start their 2025/26 Adobe Women’s FA Cup campaign on Sunday afternoon, hosting Maidstone United at Home Park.
The Greens are hoping to take their strong unbeaten run of form into the tie in PL2 this weekend, against a seventh-tier Stones side that is playing their first game in the 'proper' rounds this millennium.
Last year, a 6-0 victory over Poole Town at Bolitho Park started Argyle’s FA Cup campaign in a positive manner, but defeat to Exeter City followed.
Marie Hourihan, the Argyle Head Coach, is ready to get going in the prestigious competition and hopes her side can perform to a strong level, no matter the opposition.
“We’re excited to be back at Home Park,” Hourihan told Argyle TV. “We're all always excited to be back at home and in a different competition. Last weekend was a League Cup tie, and now we’re in the FA Cup. The final is the game that everybody remembers in the women's calendar, so I’m really excited to get going in that competition, and we’re playing a new team as well. Maidstone are a team we've never played before, so it’s a different opposition and a different challenge for us.
“Our preparation has been made slightly more challenging, in terms of availability of footage, but we've done our homework. We have managed to get some footage, but we’re making sure to focus on ourselves. Even with it being an opposition outside our league, we treat every game exactly the same.
“I think the performance on Sunday, against Watford, was excellent. We spoke about it after the game, as soon as Monday comes around, the new focus is obviously for the upcoming game at the weekend. We’ve reviewed, taken the positives from the game, and looked at areas that we can be better at. We want to produce a well-rounded performance, because we know we need to be at our best if we want to get through.”
Hourihan has had success in the FA Cup as a player, winning the competition on three separate occasions, with Birmingham City, Chelsea, and Manchester City. Now, she’s hopeful to go as far as possible from the sidelines, rather than between the sticks.
She said: “To me, it's the most prestigious competition. For the women's game, it was always the FA Cup finals; for people who didn't really know a lot about women's football, that was the reference point. I've been privileged to be successful in this competition, and win it as a player, which is a phenomenal achievement.
“Now, as a coach, I want to try and go as far as possible. Each round we progress through, more teams come into the competition, and we want to test ourselves as much as we can against good opposition, but our priority right now is the first round. We need to make sure that we take care of our responsibilities and how we apply ourselves on Sunday.”
