Former Hibs’ manager Willie Kirk is looking forward to leading out Everton in Sunday’s rescheduled FA Cup final against Manchester City.
Kirk enjoyed a successful period in charge of Hibernian Ladies before moving to Bristol City.
He later became number two at Manchester United before moving to Merseyside.
Everton’s last major trophy was in the same competition 10 years ago but Kirk’s side have started the season strongly and he insists that a Wembley return had been one of the club’s objectives at the start of the 2019/20 season.
He said: “We were very strong on that and continued that theme throughout the season and we obviously got there.
“I think the players felt when the competition got resurrected that it was a little bit written in the stars and the belief just grew and grew. The challenge for me now is to make sure we’re not happy with just being at Wembley.
“We’ve reached our objective and now we want to go one better. I don’t think there’s any point going to Wembley unless you’re going to win it.”
Kirk has high hopes for Izzy Christiansen against her former club Manchester City after the international returned to the club Everton at the end of last year after spells at Birmingham, City and Lyon.
He continued: “People like Izzy are absolutely essential to what we’re trying to grow at the club.
“We’re trying to grow a group of winners, be successful. Izzy’s been there and done it and her experience on a day-to-day basis is huge, never mind on a one-off occasion like this
“It would be pretty much full circle for her. She was a young girl here and left to go and further her career.
“She did that very successfully, notably at Man City and Lyon. She’s now come back and she’s just as excited as players who haven’t won a tournament before. She’s desperate to play a major part in this club being successful again.”
Scotland forward Claire Emslie will not feature for Everton at Wembley after joining on loan from Orlando Pride in August.
“Claire also did it with Man City,” he continued: “She’s the one player who misses out for us in terms of us registering six new signings. She was the seventh, but again, her experience – she’s won things. She’s won titles in Australia, won things with Man City, she’ll be huge in the changing room for us on Sunday.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
