In her latest column, West Ham United Women’s captain Gilly Flaherty discusses the team’s success in the fourth round of the FA Cup – and the crucial clash against Aston Villa in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.

We were delighted to get the win against Chichester & Selsey in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup fourth round. It’s always nice to score a lot of goals and from a personal perspective, I was delighted to get on the score sheet.

It was great to see three players from our academy playing in the game. It was a first start for both Anouk Denton and Maisy Barker, and Janaye Beaufort came off the bench at half time for her debut for the club.

We know that this evening’s game against Aston Villa is a must win. It’s important that we aim to get all three points because otherwise we are still in and around that relegation place.

Last time out in the league we had a fantastic result against Reading. It was a real team performance and an important result for us. Now it’s about making sure that we take that performance and all of the positives into our final league games.

Looking at Aston Villa, I know their manager well, so I know what to expect from a Marcus Bignot team. They’re going to be very organised and compact, which will make it hard for us to break them down.

We need to make sure that we don’t get frustrated by the way that Villa play and more importantly, make sure that when chances do fall to us that we’re clinical, which was the case against Reading.

It’s obviously not ideal for us to have only played a game two days ago, but it’s the same for every team. This is our job and it’s what we get paid to do, so there’s no excuses from us on the scheduling front.

My body might say otherwise, but I prefer playing matches to training, so I’ll certainly enjoy it.

We’re all professionals here and every single player that is fit and healthy will be ready to be called upon for this evening.

As always, I want to thank our incredible fans for their continued support. Come on you Irons!

*West Ham United Women play Aston Villa behind closed doors at Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday, April 20. Kick-off is at 6pm.