Watford Ladies host Keynsham Town in the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday and striker Sasha Adamson is expecting to face a different style of play.

Adamson scored the winner for John Salomon’s side against Brighton & Hove Albion in round three, setting up a clash against Keynsham, who are currently bottom of the Southern Division of the FA Women’s Premier League.

However Adamson is not expecting an easy ride for the Lady Hornets at Broadwater.

She explained: “It’ll be a hard game, we’re expecting a different style of play and for it to be a physical battle. We’ve been playing some really good football against some top sides in pre-season, if we continue that I’m confident that we can go out and get a good result.”

She added: “After the last result I’m really looking forward to Sunday’s game. We all want to have a run in the cup, it’s a great opportunity for us and hopefully we can progress to the next round.”

Adamson only made the step up to first-team level last season having joined from the Essex Centre of Excellence. And the young forward has made an explosive start to her senior career.

She said: “The winner against Brighton felt pretty good, I’ve had some great goals with the club so far but that was probably the best one.”

The Women’s Super League season does not get underway until March 19. But with the big kick off less than a fortnight away, it is little surprise Adamson is feeling sharper.

She said: “Towards the end of last season I felt a bit unfit and had a couple of injuries. I’m finally feeling fitter, am injury free and feel like my form and confidence is getting better.”

Manager Salomon says his squad are still working towards peak fitness, but has been pleased the FA Cup ties have added a competitive edge to pre-season.

He said: “Preparation has been really good although the squad’s still a little way off full fitness. We’ve got a hard working group who are dedicating themselves to their training programmes at the moment and are really pushing forward to the start of the season.

“It’s been quite nice to have these FA Cup matches within the pre-season because it’s enabled us to focus on some competitive games, rather than just looking for rotation, minutes and fitness levels.

“We’re going to give absolutely everything for to make sure that we give ourselves the best opportunity to get into round five, which is something we haven’t achieved for quite a few years.”

Like Adamson, the Golden Girls boss is also expecting a tough game against a Keynsham side who have beaten Forest Green Rovers and Carshalton Athletic to reach this stage of the competition.

“If women’s football has taught me anything it’s that there’s no easy games," he remarked.

“They’ve scored a few goals in this competition during the last two rounds, they’ll come down with nothing to lose and they’ll play with no fear.

“We’re still learning and preparing for our season so this will be another decent test for us. If we can work hard and put in a good team performance then we’ll give ourselves every chance of progressing.

“We’re under no illusions and we know it’s going to be a very difficult test.”