‘It’s just going to be another game’ – No Manchester United rivalry for Spurs forward Thomas | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur forward Martha Thomas says that there’s no vendetta against former club Manchester United and she will only be thinking about success with her current club when the two sides meet at Wembley this afternoon.

The North Londoners take on The Red Devils in the 2023/2024 Adobe Women’s FA Cup final. There will be a new winner this afternoon with Spurs featuring in their first final and Manchester United having been defeated 1-0 by Chelsea on their Wembley debut last season.

Spurs forward Thomas endured a challenging spell with former club Manchester United in which she struggled for regular starts. The player has since come into her own at Spurs after being given the opportunity to impress by head coach Robert Vilahamn. Looking ahead to another reunion with former club Manchester United, Thomas says that she holds no agenda against The Red Devils and that the focus is solely on winning the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

“It’s something that has been mentioned a lot and the best way for me to explain it is that we want to lift the trophy regardless of who we are playing against,” Thomas said when speaking to WSL Full-Time.

“I don’t have a vendetta or anything, there are a lot of good friends on that team and I’ve had a lot of great experiences with them. This is football, this is sport; you see good friends competing all of the time domestically and international teammates competing as well.

“It’s just going to be another game; you switch off to all of that. It’s going to be 11 versus 11 on the pitch and I’m just hoping that we can get over the line and lift the trophy for the club.”

Spurs have grown as the season has gone on. While The Lilywhites suffered some heavy defeats to the top sides in the first half of the campaign, they have improved their all-round performances in the second half, especially against the Manchester clubs. Thomas says that her side can take confidence from a penalty shootout victory over Manchester City in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals, along with a recent 2-2 draw at Manchester United in the league.

She said “It’s definitely a credit to the whole club, from analyst staff, to coaches, to players in learning from mistakes that we have made or learning how we can do things better.

“For the most part, we’ve improved against the top teams that we’ve played against. We took a lot of confidence after a horrific first defeat to Manchester City to competing with them to then getting over the line and beating them in the FA Cup.

“We will take confidence from that and from the way that we played against Manchester United recently as well. Almost getting over the line and collecting all three points gives us a lot of confidence going into the final against them.”

With women’s team head coach Vilahamn and men’s team boss Ange Postecoglou both aiming to bring success to Spurs in the coming years, Thomas says that it is a great time to be a member of the North London club.

She said “There’s definitely a big buzz around the club in general but especially given the success that we’ve had this season. This is just the baseline for us. The new style of play, people are excited to play it, people are excited to compete against each other.

“We’ve had those big results that have brought a lot of pride to the club and then you’ve seen those results where we are walking away disappointed like Manchester United away where we got one point. That says a lot about the direction that we are going in and the expectations that we have set for ourselves.

“It’s a really exciting culture and club to be a part of right now.”

The 2023/2024 Adobe Women’s FA Cup final takes place at Wembley at 2.30pm this afternoon. The game is a complete sell-out.