Arsenal Ladies Manager coming home
11th May 2011
Arsenal Ladies Manager coming home
FORMER Coventry City Ladies player Laura Harvey will return to her roots determined to secure her first success in The FA Women's Cup Final as manager of Arsenal.
The Gunners have won the competition a record ten times and will be aiming to lift the trophy sponsored by E.ON for the first time under Laura when they face Bristol Academy on Saturday, May 21 (2pm kick-off).
Laura is no stranger to the region having played for Coventry City Ladies from the ages of 13 to 18 while she lived in Bulkington.
And having tasted success as a player, she is determined to lead Arsenal to their 11th cup final victory having lost to Everton 3-2 in the showpiece final last season.
"This will be my second final as manager and hopefully we can win," Laura said.
"We beat Everton in the quarter-finals this season. There was not a lot between the two sides but on the day we were deserved winners and showed how much we wanted to win it.
"We then beat Barnet 5-0 in the semi-finals. We worked really hard and it all came together.
"I think it will be a tough game against Bristol Academy and for them getting to the cup final is a massive achievement and on the day they will be doing everything they can to win it."
Both teams have already secured entry to the Women's Champions League by winning their places in the final and having reached the semi-finals this season, Laura is keen to go one stage further in the next campaign.
"Arsenal usually get into Europe every year but hadn't reached this far in the Champions League before," she said.
"We won it when it was the UEFA Cup in 2007 but since it became the Champions League, we have not got through the quarter-finals.
"We lost to Lyon 2-0 this year and were given a tough lesson by a strong team so we are keen to show we have learned those lessons next season."
The current management and playing staff of Coventry City Ladies will be among the crowd at The FA Women's Cup Final and Laura is pleased to see the club is on the rise once again.
She added: "We gained promotion two seasons on the trot at a time when we had a really good team but then quite a few players went off to university and it disbanded a little.
"We played in the Midland Combination League and then got promoted to the Northern Premier League and it is great news the club has just completed back-to-back promotions to the National Premiership."
