‘It’ll be just another game’ – No rivalry with Manchester United for Spurs striker Thomas

Tottenham Hotspur striker Martha Thomas says there is no revenge against former club Manchester United and she will only think about her current club’s success when the two sides meet at Wembley this afternoon.

The north Londoners take on the Red Devils in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup 2023/24 final. There will be a new winner this afternoon, with Spurs taking part in their first final and Manchester United beaten 1-0 by Chelsea on their debut at Wembley last season.

Spurs striker Thomas endured a challenging spell with former club Manchester United, where he 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 he has no agenda against The Red Devils and is just focused on winning the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

“It’s something that’s been mentioned a lot and the best way for me to explain it is that we want to lift the trophy no matter who we’re 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; see good friends competing domestically all the time and international teammates competing as well.

“It will be just another game; you stop at all that. It will be 11 on 11 on the pitch and I just hope we get over the line and lift the trophy for the club.”

The Spurs grew as the season went on. While the Lilywhites suffered some heavy defeats in the first half of the campaign, they improved their overall performance in the second half, particularly against the Manchester clubs. Thomas says her side can take confidence from a penalty shoot-out win 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 certainly a credit to the whole club, from the analytic staff, to the coaches, to the players, to learn from the mistakes we’ve made or learn how we can do things better.

“For the most part, we’ve improved against the top teams we’ve played. We took a lot of confidence from an awful first defeat to Manchester City to compete with them to get over the line and beat them in the FA Cup.

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

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

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

“We had those big results which brought a lot of pride to the club and then you saw those results where we leave disappointed, like Manchester United, where we got a point. That says a lot about the direction we’re going and the expectations we’ve 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 completely sold out.