Sunday 11th February 2024
Fifth Round
Southampton vs. Manchester United
That’ll teach me to be slightly smug about the locations of
the previous rounds! The
last one was a local bus ride away, this one is, a bit further afield,
shall we say. With the quantity of teams being whittled down to smaller and
smaller numbers as each round goes by, the likelihood of me following a team to
somewhere far away was high. Nevertheless, it was still a sobering moment to
learn I’ll be travelling to the south coast and Southampton, as the Women’s
Championship side were drawn at home to Manchester United. Well, the game will be taking place in Eastleigh, to be more precise – from Leigh to Eastleigh! Southampton Women divvy up games between St Mary’s, home of the men’s team and nearby Eastleigh (just under 5 miles away), home of the men’s National League side. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to it, relishing the opportunity to experience a new environment – will the feeling of watching a women’s game be different in a completely different part of the country? Will the atmosphere be better in a tighter, smaller ground? Owing to the impracticality of travelling down on the Sunday (it was impossible on public transport, in fact), I went down on the Saturday and stayed in Southampton, enjoying some fine hostelries.
A glance at the history of the Women’s FA Cup will tell you that Southampton won the first edition and went on to appear in ten of the first eleven finals – but this isn’t the same club as the one we’re visiting today. Rather confusingly, Southampton Women’s FC – who still exist to this day, playing in the National League Division One South West (the fourth tier) – are a separate club from Southampton FC Women (the one we’re seeing today), and have never been affiliated with the men’s club. Formed in 1970, they won the competition eight times in that eleven-year run – intriguingly, the first three were against Scottish sides, two of whom became absorbed into Kilmarnock FC). Another club, Red Star Southampton, did link up with Southampton FC to become ‘Southampton Saints’ – even going on to reach the 1999 Women’s FA Cup Final, losing 2-0 to Arsenal. However, after financial issues surrounded Southampton FC and relegation from the Premier League was confirmed in 2005, Red Star/Saints were cast aside and continued as an independent women’s football club until 2019, when they folded due to declining player numbers and lack of financial support.
By 2015, the FA were starting to take women’s football more seriously, offering increased support and funding to clubs. After fostering a good reputation for producing young players, Southampton FC were granted an FA licence to create a Women and Girls Centre of Excellence, from which they formed several youth sides. It was these teams that formed the basis of the women’s club, which was introduced for the 2017-18 season and placed in the Hampshire Women’s League Division One, winning it in their first season. Despite being turned down for a place in the FA Women’s Championship (the second tier), a combination of circumstances saw them ‘promoted’ to the Southern Region Premier Division (fifth tier) for 2018-19. Helming the club at this point was former England international, Marieanne Spacey-Cale, who (to this day) holds a dual role as head of women’s and girls’ football and first team manager. Southampton won 18 out of 18 games that season, earning a promotion to the Women’s National League.
Their progress was halted somewhat by the Coronavirus pandemic – in both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, they sat atop of the National League Division One South West but both competitions were curtailed. Despite this, the club applied for a place in the National League Premier Division South for 2021-22 – and this time, their application for ‘promotion’ was granted. Elevation from the Women’s National League back then wasn’t as straightforward as just winning the league – split into North and South divisions, the league winners would face each other in a play-off final to determine who would take a place in the Championship. Losing just once in the league all season, Southampton won the division and faced North winners, Wolverhampton Wanderers, in the final. Over a thousand spectators attended the final, held at Edgley Park in Stockport, as a 21st-minute strike from Sophia Pharaoh sent The Saints into the women’s second tier. The play-off has been scrapped from this season – so now both National League winners get automatic promotion – which is a bit unfortunate for Wolves, who went on to miss out on another National League North title (and play-off place) on goal difference, while they’re way off the automatic promotion pace set by our rampant friends from Newcastle this season. Just goes to show the final lines and windows of opportunity that exist in football.
Southampton have since been going steady in the Championship
– following a mid-table finish of sixth
last season, they are currently sitting
in fourth – just a handful of points away from more well-established clubs.
Following promotion, they announced that they would turn professional and play
all of their games at St Mary’s (with Eastleigh operating as a ‘backup
ground’). With the structure of Southampton FC and a sizeable catchment area,
clearly the support is there to develop a top-level women’s club here. While
promotion to the WSL may not happen this season, it just seems a matter of
when, not if, Southampton FC are same-league buddies as today’s visitors,
Manchester United.
Eastleigh’s ground, Silverlake Stadium, is only a short hop from Southampton – in fact, it’s closer to Southampton Airport than the centre of Eastleigh itself. So, after a luxurious McDonalds brunch in the city centre and a seven-minute train ride, I step out of Southampton Airport Parkway station in the crisp, early afternoon sun. The sky looks ideal to fly in too – the airport was developed from what was Eastleigh Aerodrome, with the site being famous for the first flight of the Spitfire. This was celebrated in 2005 as a poll amongst Eastleigh FC supporters resulted in them adopting ‘The Spitfires’ as a nickname and incorporating the famous fighter plane on their crest.
The walk to the stadium is around a mile and I’m not the only one doing it; several groups of people follow me along the same straight road before we cross into some dark woodland. Which sounds a bit weird, I grant you – naturally, being in the immediate area of the airport, there’s nothing else here but roads and parkland. Just before we get to the creepy woods though, a chap in a Southampton shirt asks me if ‘this is the way to the football ground?’, ‘Yes’, I answer, with all the confidence of someone who’s a regular visitor here – what would we do without Google Maps in this timeline?
The ground, which has been historically called ‘Ten Acres’ (with Silverlake being a sponsored name), was opened in 1957 and has gone under a vast number of renovations to bring it up to what I would guess, is League Two standard at least. Many of these changes have happened within the last 15 years, with two new stands being built from scratch, with other developments occurring on three sides of the stadium. While the other stands are a mixture of covered seating and terracing, the focal point is the West Stand, which dominates the rest of the ground. With a capacity of over a thousand, the eight-rowed stand looms up, rather than across, the west side of the ground – very reminiscent of stadiums of the past, where a grandstand would hang over a track of terracing underneath. So, there’s still an ‘old-fashioned’ look to everything, despite it being renovated relevantly recently.
I’ve pre-booked a ticket for the West Stand – and it’s a good job I did. I see online that the game has been sold out, with no available tickets to buy on the gate. Due to my leisurely start to the day, I arrive later than planned, so when I arrive through the turnstile a couple of minutes before kick-off, I’m left, once again, searching for a seat – and there isn’t one. I never learn – I still think it’s the first qualifying round where I can just turn up and pick a spot. So, it’s standing room only on the west side of the ground and I have to find a spot by the side of the pitch. The crowd behind the hoardings is already two-people deep, but thankfully they’re dispersed by the stewards as they’re all stood in the ‘yellow area’ where people aren’t allowed to stand for safety reasons. Anticipating this, I hung behind, leaning against a wall, which was good enough for the stewards. So, while my stupidity/laziness/slight drunkenness prevented me from getting here early enough to grab a comfortable seat, I at least have a great view of the pitch, roughly on the halfway line.
Just as the teams emerge from the changing rooms, a brass band walks the length of the pitch, playing 'When The Saints Go Marching In' to inspire the crowd. They’re wearing red jackets with ‘Saints Brass’ on them, along with their own hashtag, #saintsbrass. With hashtags indicating internet savviness, I checked out their socials after the match, and I was met with a YouTube page with brass covers of popular songs. Here now, as they’re pumping away (is that the right term for playing brass?), I look up at the teams who are now lining up for the pre-match handshakes and see a rainbow behind them. What a beautiful image; the teams, walking alongside their young mascots, are shaking hands as a sign of respect with their opponents, a rainbow evoking peace and tranquillity shines above and a brass band is playing the soundtrack. It’s so picturesque, it almost made me forget about my lack of seat and slight hangover.
The lack of seating at least affords me a pitch-level view of the action, which is a nice change – they say that being up in a stand lends a better view of the play, but you get to feel more of a part of the action with this sort of view. Aside from seeing the players up close, you can hear the sounds much better too – the ping as balls are kicked, the crunch when tackles are made and the venom with which opposing players call each other ‘pricks’. As it happens, the first seven minutes are somewhat quiet – both sides just traded the ball for periods of possession, without doing much with it – then BANG, Ella Toone gets in on the action. Wearing their away colours of white (what with Southampton wearing red), United move the ball up towards the Southampton penalty area, it’s laid off to Toone 20 yards out and she takes a single touch before firing past the outstretched glove of Kayla Rendell, and into the corner of the net. A goal out of nowhere – but it gees up the sizeable United travelling support sitting in the stand opposite me, who sing about ‘going to Wembley’. Still a bit early, guys!
Standing a few yards away from me, shouting instructions at her players and donning a funky green hoodie, is Southampton head coach Marieanne Spacey-Cale. For those relatively new to women’s football, Spacey-Cale is a bit of legend – winning 94 caps for England and a domestic treble for Fulham one year, before going on to spend nearly a decade with the all-conquering Arsenal side of the 2000s. The former attacking midfielder has been a leading figure in women’s coaching ever since, holding various positions within the England set-up (at every age group, as well as a spell as senior team assistant manager under Mark Sampson), and at club level with Fulham, Arsenal and Charlton. It’s this vast experience that led Southampton to appoint her to not just to coach the first team, but also to help develop the club – which is now on the verge of breaking into the big time. It’s figures like her – ones who started their careers when there wasn’t much money (or indeed professionalism) in the women’s game who are invaluable to its ongoing development. Her experiences acting as a reminder of the resilience and determination required to overcome barriers and achieve greatness, hopefully inspiring the next generation of female players and coaches, taking the game to new heights. She also looks like she could beat me up, so I’ve got nothing but good things to say about her.
United seem happy to let Southampton have the ball – which probably suits both teams at the minute. With that early goal, keeping the ball is the home side’s best form defence, while for United, they can sit on their lead and simply look to spring counter-attacks. This almost paid dividends, as United break up a period of Southampton possession, move the ball to Nikita Parris inside the penalty area – she shoots towards the right-hand side, but the ball hits a defender’s leg before spinning to the left-hand side and hitting the post. Almost two – and it would have been if Leah Galton’s follow-up wasn’t blocked by some great defending. Just before half-time, captain Katie Zelem has an opportunity to double the score, but her free-kick from a central position, 20 yards out just goes wide of the right-hand post – Southampton not offering much to get the majority packed inside Silverlake excited.
Half-time and still a single goal separates the two sides, but people here seem to have enjoyed themselves; there’s a large number of children here, many of whom have been in good voice, chanting ‘Saints, Saints, Saints’ in an attempt to make something happen for their side. Just before the whistle was blown for half-time, I eavesdropped one lad (it wasn’t difficult, we’re all packed in here!), who was hatching a plan with his mate to wave at the players as they leave the field; where best to stand, etc. As the players were walking to the tunnel situated next to us, a few of these kids screamed MARRRRRY at Mary Earps – if you’ve seen the scene in I’m Alan Partridge with Alan shouting DAN (something I’ve personally become used to over the years on account of that being my name), it was just like that. I didn’t know whether to feel amused or frightened at the dedication to fandom these youngsters were displaying. However, it does give me the idea to brand this collective of Mary Earps fans as ‘The Earpsforce’ – partly inspired by the aeroplane association going on here at Eastleigh, but mostly because I’m a sad pun addict.
There aren’t many places for me to go at half-time – the queue for the burger stall is snaking up the front of the stand and with a decent spot to protect, I elect to stay where I am. Funnily enough, the record crowd here at Ten Acres/Silverlake was set last month, as Eastleigh hosted Newport County in the FA Cup. Today’s crowd, which would be announced as 4,554, is the fourth-largest ever attendance here, which is impressive. It did leave me wondering how many more they could have got into St Mary’s if the game was hosted there? Attendances for league games there have ranged between 1,800-3,000 and if they’re able to pack in an extra thousand here in Eastleigh for this big cup game, you’d imagine they would have at least trebled that increase at St Mary’s with the right incentives.
Then again, would it have been worth it? The extra numbers won’t make much of a difference to the club’s coffers; more ticket incentives will inevitably mean taking more hits on profit margins – then there’s the atmosphere to think about. It’s all well and good having a winning team but going to the football is about more than that – it’s a day out for people. Feeling involved in the action is very much the attraction for many supporters to keep attending matches and as silly as it might sound, there’s something about being packed in tightly together that makes for a better experience. You don’t have the ‘comfort’ of being able to lounge across multiple seats or feel able to turn and chat with your pals, you’re almost forced to watch the game and get involved in what’s happening on the pitch. Hence, the noise levels go up and the atmosphere becomes more supportive of the home team and (potentially) intimidating for the opposition. All this can do is heighten the enjoyment of the match. So, I can see it being a difficult decision for the club when choosing to host this in a big stadium or not – despite my situation, hunched up against a wall and bullied for space by children screaming MARY, I think they did make the right choice in hosting it here, judging by the atmosphere.
When the game resumes, United create two chances in quick succession through Parris – and in truth, they both should be goals. After making a good save while one-on-one with the 70-cap England forward, Rendell is grateful that Parris’ next shot is hit straight at her; cutting in from the right, with a deft touch creating the space beyond a defender, Parris can only find glove with a tame shot. United are moving Southampton around at will though, so it can only be a matter of time before they extend their lead, surely? Then something happened – something that so often happens in cup ties in the men’s game that I’m sure we’re all familiar with; the supposed ‘lesser’ team equalise and actually get on top of the play.
Moving up the right after breaking up a United attack, Southampton shift the ball out to Lexi Lloyd-Smith; she cuts inside, dummies and crosses the ball in – somehow, it avoids everyone, even the gloves of Earps to nestle into the far corner. The place goes up – man, woman and child on their feet, even the ones who were screaming for MARY earlier, now seemingly a fallen hero in their eyes. One woman standing next to me is bouncing up and down like Tigger – and I’m not being facetious here, it’s the most excited I’ve seen anyone during this FA Cup so far. It was the exact thing that this game needed – a goal for the home side to give everyone a lift. The supporters scream their side forward and they respond – a cross from the right again is headed towards goal but there’s no real power behind it and Earps collects. She’s called into action again not long later when Saints’ Katie Wilkinson does well to skip past a defender 25 yards out, shoots – and despite the ball taking a deflection off a defender, Earps is positioned well to collect again. United look shaken – they’ve been looking really comfortable until now, but one mistake and they’re fighting a rearguard action all of a sudden. Can Southampton continue forward and complete an upset?
Just as it looks like a shock is about to unfold in Eastleigh, United wrestle the game away from our plucky hosts. First, Leah Galton goes on a mazy run down the right, clips in a high ball and Rachel Williams climbs highest to head the ball down and in. The Saints supporters rally – their side have been on top for a good ten minutes and have come close to a goal on a couple of occasions, they’re still in this. Then, Katie Zelem whacks in a corner into the six-yard box and Williams gets in between two defenders to head the ball in. Or does she? Angry shouts resonate around me as everyone is convinced the ball didn’t cross the line – and so are the Southampton players, who surround the ref. She’s having none of it though and shoes everyone away.
Although it feels slightly harsh on Southampton – who have dominated the last twenty minutes – it just underlines the extra touch of quality that United have when they can be under pressure, yet still find two slightly scrappy goals (I think that’s fair to say? Sorry Rachel, if you’re reading!) to win the game. There were a couple of moments when the score was tied when Southampton could have nosed ahead – and then who knows if they could have held on? They even have a couple of chances towards the end of the game; left-back, Jemma Purfield, hits a fierce shot that Earps does brilliantly to tip away (if any blame was attached to her for letting the cross slip in earlier, she made up for it here). Then, Lucia Kendall latches onto a ball into the area from Megan Wynne, slips it under the onrushing Earps but it comes back off the post and agonisingly trickles past a Southampton player sliding in.
It ends 3-1 to United, but it’s been by far the most competitive game I’ve seen so far – which was always likely to be the case as we get to the latter rounds of this competition. Obviously, it’s hard to give an assessment based on a single match, but I would not be surprised if there wasn’t much of a quality gap between the first and second tiers of English women’s football. In recent history, sides promoted from the second tier have struggled – United being a relatively recent exception. But as more men’s clubs invest in women’s teams, pushing them towards professionalism, that gap is going to close – and as a professional side with a huge catchment area to draw upon, I don’t think it’ll be too long before we see Southampton and Manchester United competing in the Super League as equals.
I’ve really enjoyed my experience here – even it being standing room only and all – and it’s left me feeling even more optimistic about the growth of women’s football. I take my leave from the crowd of Saints’ supporters who push their way to the barrier by the side of the pitch to greet the players, and I’m left pondering my next trip on this run – who will United get next? Whoever they draw, I’ve got a 50/50 chance of them being at home again, which will be a welcome relief to my wallet, I must admit.
From Eastleigh to Leigh? Let’s go!
Southampton 1
(Lloyd-Smith, 65)
Manchester
United 3
(Toone, 8. Williams, 74,
82)
Attendance: 4,554
Next round: Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Manchester United
0 comments:
Post a Comment