Kirby had only been in the action seven minutes before she doubled the Blues lead after Sam Kerr had broken the deadlock on the hour mark.

The No.14 got her second of the night two minutes later and Harder scored a fourth in stoppage time to seal our place in the last four of last season’s competition.

For the second game in succession, it was the Blues substitutes that made a telling impact from the bench and Kirby highlighted the strong camaraderie among the Chelsea squad.

‘It’s a credit to the squad and the people that we have,’ said Kirby. ‘Everyone is motivated to do well and everyone wants each other to do well. People are coming into the games and everyone is celebrating with them.

‘Jessie [Fleming] and Drew [Spence] got the goals the other day when they came on and you could see the bench, we were absolutely buzzing and it’s the same tonight.

‘It shows the strength we have. Whatever starting XI we have, we have people who can come in and make a difference.’

With Wednesday’s victory over Birmingham, Emma Hayes’s side now face Manchester City in the semi-finals and Kirby is hungry for a return to Wembley.

She added: ‘It’s really exciting. You want to play against the best teams, and you want to earn your way to get to that final and get to Wembley. Everyone is really excited for it.

‘It’s been a rivalry for a while now. It’ll be a massive challenge, a huge game for us and we want to get to Wembley.

‘When we play in these games, we want to make sure that we get there, and we will give everything to get there. There’s no better feeling than getting to Wembley and to win that trophy at Wembley would be special.

‘We’ve managed to do it before and I want to do it again, and again, and again with this club.’

For now, attentions turn to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League with Chelsea hosting Brighton & Hove Albion at Kingsmeadow this weekend and Kirby has revealed some added motivation going into Saturday’s clash.

Kirby said: ‘Playing at our home ground, we see it as a fortress, and we want to make sure we continue to do that for the fans.

‘We were really disappointed to lose the first game of the season, but we’ve used that as fuel and motivation.

‘You can see in our performances now that we are hungry and motivated to score goals and get the three points.’

Tomorrow’s game against Brighton kicks-off at 11.30am and will be shown live on Sky Sports. Tickets for the fixture can be purchased here.

Before then, get involved in our new Women's Play Predictor for a chance to win some great prizes! Play on the 5th Stand app and make your selections for the game before registration closes.