Gareth Taylor believes City’s performance in our Continental Cup clash against Chelsea will be a ‘good lead’ into Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final with Spurs.

Lauren James’ early strike proved the difference at the Joie Stadium, with a 1-0 defeat seeing City’s Conti Cup campaign end at the last four stage.

Despite the defeat, Taylor’s side dominated large spells of the contest, particularly in a second half where Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Lauren Hemp were both denied by fine Hannah Hampton saves, and strong claims for a City penalty were waved away in stoppage time.

And while there are areas to work on ahead of Sunday’s 15:00 (UK) kick-off at Brisbane Road, the boss is confident that his players will react positively to the setback.

“I think it’s about using both of those [the positive of the performance but the disappointment of the result], saying ‘we did this really well last night but this is where we need to improve’.

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“The game never changes, it’s always won in both boxes. Apart from Lauren James’ shot last night that gets deflected, if it doesn’t get deflected, Khiara [Keating] saves it.

“It was the only shot they had on our goal. We know where we need to improve for sure, but there were a lot of positives.

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“For us it’s a good lead into the Tottenham game. We’ve played them a lot recently, they’re similar to Chelsea so we don’t have to change too much.

“With the team playing an away game in the FA Cup, third away, we’re used to being on our travels but we’re excited by the challenge.

“We’re potentially two games away from Wembley.”

It’s a swift turnaround for City, with less than 72 hours to recover and then prepare for our visit to Spurs.

However, Taylor revealed that there were no fresh injury updates in the squad, with a final training session set to take place at the City Football Academy tomorrow.

He added: “[There are] no real changes. It’s quite soon after last night. The medical department have updated me and everyone’s good.

“We’ll train tomorrow and make a decision on the team.

“It feels different to last season we’ve got good options on the sidelines, although many in defence, and that’s good for us and we’ll push forward to the next game.”