24,000 watch Chelsea victory
Bridge bonanza
Maybe it says something about women’s football – or just human psychology – that more people paid for tickets to watch Manchester City v Manchester United at the Etihad than watched Chelsea play Spurs at Stamford Bridge for free.
This might be the moment that proves, definitively, that paid-for tickets are far better for the growth of the game and, doubtless, the point will be analysed at length by Chelsea, and the Football Association, when they look back on a weekend in which the Women’s Super League’s first derbies between these teams were moved to men’s grounds.
City and United shattered the WSL attendance record – the final figure was 31,213 – but also notable is that Bristol City, whose average home crowd at Stoke Gifford was 565 last season, managed, with a tenth of the promotion, to pull 3,041 into Ashton Gate.
The pattern is clear, and Spurs, West Ham and Reading – all hosting games at their men’s stadiums before Christmas – can see it. Anyone who witnessed this – a fullblooded, partisan London derby – will be calling on the likes of Liverpool to do the same.
The challenge women’s football faces is to ensure its moments in the sun remain more than just that. That 15,000 who obtained tickets did not show up at Stamford Bridge, during the international break, is hardly ideal, but that is not the bigger point. How many of the 24,564 that flooded Stamford Bridge – a crowd more than five times higher than Chelsea Women’s record match-day crowd – know that Chelsea Women play their home games at Kingsmeadow, 7.4 miles away? In the context of a Chelsea men’s match-day routine, that involves staying on the District Line train all the way to Wimbledon for a further 12 minutes, then spending either 43 minutes on two trains or 28 minutes on a bus.
This is not a new dilemma for the women’s game and Chelsea are far from the worst offenders, but perhaps it then becomes harder to change habits, given men’s football grounds are so well connected. Where this argument falls down is that Manchester City’s Academy Stadium is one tram stop further than the Etihad.
“The first thing I’ll do Monday morning is ring the CEO and say: ‘What’s the plan?’” said Emma Hayes, the Chelsea manager. “What
have we got to do as players, as staff? Appearances at schools, in the community?
“I get we have to get to a point of professional players being rewarded, but you have to give, all the time, to get people through the doors and keep them coming. But it’s getting easier, not having to sell yourself the way you once did.”
Before kick-off, Karen Hills, the Spurs manager, hugged assistant Juan Amoros. She might have taken a moment to reflect. How can Hills, for all her experience in women’s football, have prepared for this? This is Spurs’ first season playing full-time football. Ashleigh Neville, their right-back, was a teacher until recently and substitute goalkeeper Chloe Morgan a solicitor. “We spoke on the way down that 10 years ago, we were playing to five or six people,” Hills said.
“Every one of them deserved that opportunity to have that credibility, to walk out on that pitch,” Hills said. “We’re here because we deserve to be here.”
This is probably the first time a women’s game has had Marvin Humes of JLS doing a DJ set at halftime, even if Hayes had to ask her players who JLS actually are.
Even with the caveat that this is a weakened Chelsea side, without Erin Cuthbert and Fran Kirby, Spurs looked at home. If they feared the worst when Bethany England broke the deadlock after just four minutes, whipping a strike from outside the area into the top corner, it did not show in those moments where, for example, Gemma Davidson slalomed passed blue shirts like the challenges were mere inconveniences than anything else.
Their new goalkeeper, Rebecca Spencer, may be their best arrival of the summer, propelling Drew Spence’s drive from range on to the bar before Guro Reiten directed the rebound against the woodwork.
Chelsea (4-1-2-3) Berger; Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Blundell (Andersson 80); Spence (Cooper 62); Reiten, Ingle; Ji, England, Engman (Cuthbert 73). Subs Telford (g), Thorisdottir, Asante, Fleming.
Tottenham (4-3-3) Spencer; Neville, Schillaci, Godfrey, Worm (Ayane 85); Percival, Furness, Haines (Peplow 45); Davison, Quinn (Addison 73), Graham. Subs Morgan (g), Leon, Mclean, Filbey. Booked Furness, Schillaci.
Referee Amy Fearn.