By the admission of head coach Adam Furness, the club are about to take on ‘the best team in the world at the minute’ when they face off against Chelsea in the Subway Women’s League Cup on Wednesday night.
Travelling to London, Durham will be representing the Championship as the only club from the division left in the competition at the quarter-final stage.
And it is a monumental task facing the Wildcats who would have to pull off one of the most incredible upsets in the history of the women’s game in the UK to beat a Chelsea side who have not lost all season, including in Europe where they have put Real Madrid to the sword home and away.
“Anybody that’s travelling, thank you. It’s a hell of a trip to go midweek,” Furness said, adding that fans could hope to see their team “stand up and really take the game to them” as they bid to become the first team to upset the Chelsea apple cart this campaign.
“We’re up against a collection of world class players,” Furness said.
“The speed of play is certainly going to be different to what we’re used to playing in the Championship, but what a great experience and opportunity for some of our players who won’t have come across that level of play before.”
(Image: Durham Women FC) Most read in sport
In contrast, Durham have stuttered after a scintillating start to the season finding themselves among the handful of teams battling for the top spot in the league and the prize of promotion that comes along with that. They have conceded seven in the last two games, scoring twice – but they haven’t lost in the cup yet, qualifying from the group stage unbeaten.
“We have to be realistic in our approach. If we go all out and try to play expansive football and open the pitch up and try to take the game to Chelsea, we’re probably going to come off slightly worse!” Furness admitted.
“But we’ve got to go with a game plan that helps us to be solid in certain areas of the pitch and then, like any game of football, on transitions… counter attacks, there’s potentially opportunities to exploit.
“Set pieces might come into play. There’s different ways to score a goal.”
Furness is not adamant that the game is a done deal however, and is ‘daring to dream’ that a cup upset can happen.
“Football has this crazy knack of throwing up these exceptional sort of results every so often.
“Could we do it? Why not!
“If we were to pull it off, we know we’d have a home semi-final and that would mean a huge deal to everybody here – and it would be a huge night in Durham.”
“The fact we’ve managed to bring in Amy Claypole from Chelsea recently shows where Durham are looking to get and the networks we’re making with these top clubs.
“The fact Chelsea were willing to send one of their younger players to us was a real coup for us.”
Durham added to their squad ahead of the clash, signing Canadian goalkeeper Rylee Foster from top-tier Everton for an undisclosed fee.
Durham Women take on Chelsea at Kingsmeadow in Kingston-on-Thames at 6.45 on Wednesday. The match will be broadcast on YouTube.
