SWINDON Town Women midfielder Megan Attenborough and manager James Lally say there are more than enough reasons to fuel an inspiring performance in their Women’s FA Cup third qualifying round tie with Paulton Rovers on Saturday.

Town’s game is the second part of a historic double-header at the County Ground in which both the men’s and women’s team will play on the same day in the same place, one after the other.

With a record crowd expected to stick around after the men’s team face Hartlepool United in League Two, Attenborough is determined to produce excellence in order to convince more fans of Scott Lindsey’s side to support their female counterparts too.

Speaking in Thursday’s press conference, Attenborough said: “As women playing football, we always have to show what we’re about.

“There will always be those people out there who judge and scrutinise us more than the men’s game, no matter what happens in the men’s game. And there will always be those who go to men’s games no matter what.

“The main thing for us this weekend is showing how good we are. That will make people realise that we can play football, we are good to watch.

“We want to encourage people to come and watch us more often. If the men lose every week then you still go and support them, and even if we win every week people don’t come and support us. We want to take this opportunity to show people how good we are.”

Manager Lally knows progression in the FA Cup still means a great deal to Town as they have only reached the first round once in the past eight seasons.

In his debut attempt at repeating the third-round adventure Swindon went on in 2014-15, Lally is confident his players can take that leap by showing fans what they’re all about.

Previewing the game against a Paulton side who play two divisions below Town in the pyramid, Lally said: “We’re not too focused on Paulton – we know what they’re going to do, and we know what we need to do to beat them.

“For us, it’s an opportunity in front of hopefully a lot of people to show them what we’re about so that they’re more interested in future games.

“And the prize money in the FA Cup has gone up considerably compared to previous seasons, so there’s that to play for too.

“We’ve come under the umbrella of the club now, but for winning this round it’s £3,000 – that’s a massive amount of money for us still. So there’s more than enough for the players to go out there and fight for.”