Jane Ross insists West Ham Women can upset the odds and sink her old club Manchester City in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
Scotland international Ross, 29, joined the fledgling Hammers last summer after two years with City, during which time she won both the league title and the FA Cup.
West Ham only turned professional at the start of the season, their first in the Women’s Super League, with manager Matt Beard assembling an entire new squad of 16 players.
The aim was simply to stay in the WSL but not only did the Hammers achieve that comfortably, they also reached a historic first-ever Women’s FA Cup final.
West Ham will be huge underdogs at Wembley, though, having been on the end of a 7-1 drubbing at the City Football Academy in October and losing the return fixture 3-1 in January.
Ross admitted: “It’s going to be a tough game. We’ve played them twice this season so the girls have plenty of experience of them as a team.
“We definitely competed with them the second time round. We competed in the first game although the scoreline reflects a different story.
“But this is a cup final, a one-off game, and we are definitely up for it.”
Ross’ route into the professional game was unusual to say the least.
As a youngster brought up on the Isle of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, she needed to take a ferry to the Scottish mainland in order to play football.
“I played with my neighbours, all boys, for a number of years and then when I turned 13 years old they were all going away to the mainland to join clubs, to be playing week in, week out, so I said to my parents I really want to do that,” she said.
“They got me involved with Paisley Saints, the closest girls team to me at that time.
“My dad would take me over once a week for training and at weekends as well. It would mean an overnight stay for training. We’d go straight after school to the ferry and come back first thing in the morning.
“I’m very grateful and thankful to him for being a huge part of my journey. I enjoyed it.”
