'My mum isn't too happy' - Rugby Borough eye 'surreal' cup upset
"My mum is not too happy with me," says Kelis Barton.Why? Because Barton's mother will be waking up in the early hours of Sunday morning in Seattle to watch her daughter play for Rugby Borough in the FA Cup almost 5,000 miles away.Barton's side - the lowest-ranked team left in the competition - host Women's Super League side Liverpool in the fifth round at 12:30 GMT on Sunday."It's a 4:30am kick-off for my mum to watch so she's not too happy with me about that, but it's not my fault," the American full-back joked."She messaged me two days ago and said 'Am I reading this right? Is it actually this early? I might just pull an all-nighter.'"Rugby have enjoyed a stellar cup run so far, scoring 23 goals and conceding just one as they breezed past Lincoln, Peterborough United, Mancunian Unity and London Bees.Now Liverpool, ranked 21 places higher in the football pyramid, stand in their way of an FA Cup quarter-final."It's surreal even thinking that Liverpool are coming to Rugby Borough," says winger Karesha Iton."This journey has made everyone so much closer as players in the house or staff members. The family environment we've got has got us here."Despite the gulf in the pyramid, Rugby's players are confident they can go toe-to-toe with the Merseyside club."We're excited, but keeping that confidence with ourselves. As much as we respect Liverpool, we're confident as well," said striker Angelina Nixon, who is the cup's joint-top scorer with six goals. Barton added: "At the end of the day we back ourselves. It's more of an opportunity. It's not 'oh, we have to play Liverpool', it's 'we get to play Liverpool and they get to play us'."
'Cup quarter-final would put us on map'
One win away from the quarter-finals, Rugby's FA Cup run this season is all the more impressive when the club's recent history is taken into account.During the 2021-22 season, the club - then known as Coventry United and playing in the Championship - was placed into voluntary liquidation.They were saved by a last-minute takeover deal, but were handed a 10-point deduction days later by the FA for a breach of competition rules. The club pulled off a miraculous final-day escape from relegation that season - only to go down the following year. But it was in the third tier that Coventry United was reborn, with the club renamed as Rugby Borough and relocating to the Warwickshire town.Since then they have switched to a hybrid model, with both professional and semi-professional players, while Lee Burch has become the club's head coach.The former Millwall, Yeovil and London Bees boss believes reaching the last eight of the FA Cup would only help Rugby's ambitions to move full-time and boost their pursuit of promotion back to the Championship."It really would put us on the map - which is what this FA Cup run is about, alongside the prize money," Burch said."We hit over 1,000 tickets within the first 24 hours. And they're not coming along to see Liverpool. They're coming along to [see] us versus Liverpool."Despite the excitement, however, Burch said he had to ban the words "FA Cup" and "Liverpool" over the past two weeks as his side continue their bid for promotion.The cup match is sandwiched between fixtures against Wolves, which they drew 1-1, and Nottingham Forest - the two teams at the top of the Women's National League northern division."That magic of the FA Cup that people talk about - which we see sometimes in the men's game, where you see a smaller side take out one of the big guns - I'm not sure we've seen it in recent history," Burch said."So if we were able to do that, then that's going to be a big story to tell."We're a hard-working, honest, very talented group, and the players deserve this moment to shine and I have massive belief that they will do."
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