Sunderland play Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter final on Saturday evening

Sunderland boss Mel Reay has urged her players to 'have a go' and believe they can cause a huge cup upset when they face holders Manchester United this weekend.

Sunderland travel to take on the WSL giants in the FA Cup quarter final on Saturday evening (17.15pm KO) and while the odds are firmly against the Black Cats, Reay says her team are relishing the challenge ahead. While a strong defensive structure is clearly going to be key against some of the best players in the country and indeed the world, the head coach wants her to team to be positive in their performance.

"There's nothing better for us than to play against the holders of the FA Cup," Reay said.

"They've got some really good individual players, which our players can put themselves up against. It's exciting, it gives the week a different feel. I actually spent a couple of days with Marc Skinner this week on our pro licence course, there's been a lot of banter. But I know that they're going to take the game seriously, as I'd expect, there's a lot of mutual respect so I'm expecting a very strong Man Utd team.

"We've got to be brave, we've got to go and have a go. We don't want to go and just sit behind the ball for 90 minutes, we want to test ourselves against some of the best players. We'll have a structure when we don't have it but when we do we want to try and cause some damage. We've got to have a good structure and we've to pick our moments [to attack], and of course we've got to have a bit of luck as well. Set pieces are obviously going to be really important on the night, first and foremost defending them but also using it as a catalyst for us to attack. We trust the players, we have to believe that we can go there and win.

"It's exciting for our players. For our younger players it's a chance to test themselves against players they probably watched win the European Championships at Wembley. It's a real motivation for them to see how close they are to that level and it should push them to want to come back and work harder, develop and get that little bit closer to the top flight."

Sunderland have already earned in excess of six figures in prize money from the tournament so far, with a further £90,000 on offer to the winner this weekend. The Black Cats are the last team outside of the WSL still in the competition.

Mel Reay’s Sunderland squad update ahead of Man Utd cup clash

Reay confirmed that Sunderland would be without talented forward Mary McAteer for the game, though the squad is otherwise in good health ahead of the game.

"Mary McAteer has had a concussion," Reay confirmed.

"She seemed OK initially but you do sometimes get delayed symptoms and that's been the case. So she'll be well looked after and won't travel this weekend. Louise [Griffiths] is due to play 45 minutes against Aston Villa for our PGA side this week, and providing she comes through that OK she'll be a welcome addition to our squad for the first time this season on Saturday."

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