Reporters at every ground as records tumble on Women’s Football Weekend
Events on the pitch would suggest that there has not yet been a north London power shift in women’s football. That they drew 38,262 to the Women’s Super League’s first north London derby, a record crowd for the division, gives Spurs reason to suggest otherwise.
The Football Association’s inaugural Women’s Football Weekend played out more like an episode of
Record Breakers, but even Roy Castle never saw this many landmarks tumble in three hours.
The cumulative attendance for yesterday’s six WSL games was 74,247 – a league record. The FA’S only aim was to beat the 63,931 who watched on the opening weekend. Liverpool Women attracted a record in the WSL era of 23,500. At Kingsmeadow, Chelsea and Manchester United produced a record attendance for a WSL game in a team’s own stadium (4,790).
Cynics may have wondered if Manchester City and Chelsea – the only Super League clubs hosting games at their own grounds this weekend – had missed a trick, but is not the whole point of this weekend, and two days without any men’s Premier League and Championship football, to inspire some kind of carry-over into the domestic season? Exactly how many of those 38,262 will return to watch Spurs’ next WSL home game, against Brighton on Dec 8, remains the elephant in the room, as it will be at Brighton, Reading and Liverpool – the three other clubs who moved their games to men’s stadiums. Chelsea’s average of 4,470 from their past two home games is actually the most impressive – and sustainable – feat of the weekend.
But even before yesterday, the average WSL attendance this season worked out at 4,112 – up 313 per cent on last. Even without those one-off games in men’s grounds, the average attendance has increased by 45 per cent – an average rise of 425 per club – to 1,390. And 193,247 people have been to WSL games so far this season; 107,000 attended all 110 games last season.
Neither club here would be drawn on when or if their women would head back to their parent grounds but there was ample reflection on Spurs’ journey up to this point from two head coaches who were once asked to make sandwiches, earn minibus licences to drive the first team and to pay referees from their own pockets.
“I think it’s absolutely momentous for Spurs Women and incredible to see how far we’ve actually come over the 10, 11 years that myself and Juan [Amoros] have been involved,” said Karen Hills, Spurs’ joint head coach. “It should be something that becomes the norm. You want to see women play in the big stadiums, with big crowds.”
Amoros reflected on his arrival at the club a decade ago. “I think we lost 6-0, 7-0,” he said. “I remember sending that report to Karen and it was eight pages of things we had to change. We had a dream. For us to be here now is unbelievable.”
It will take more than six league games for Spurs to uproot Arsenal’s 32-year stranglehold on women’s football. A demonstration of the onfield gap that still exists between these two sides arrived in the form of Kim Little’s sumptuous half-volley. By that point, Spurs had been reduced to defending so last-ditch that Hannah Godfrey had been left horizontal and in need of medical treatment keeping out Vivianne Miedema’s driven effort.
For the most part, Ashleigh Neville contained Miedema’s scurrying runs down the right. The problem for Spurs is that they could not keep her silent. Anna Filbey will go to
bed haunted by the image of Miedema bearing down on her: it was Filbey whose second-half slip enabled Miedema to deliver a trademark low finish, and Filbey’s clearing header that fell for Little to slam her left-foot clip into the net.
It is no longer worth asserting that Spurs can upset the established order in the WSL – the question is how drastically they will do it. Spurs looked dangerous when able to unleash Kit Graham and Rianna Dean to attack Jennifer Beattie, but decision-making in the final third needs work to match Arsenal’s.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-5-1) Spencer; Neville, Godfrey, Filbey, Worm (Davison 83); Percival, Peplow (Quinn 76), Furness, Green (Ayane 79), Graham; Dean. Subs Morgan (g), Haines, Leon, Schillaci. Booked Neville, Furness, Peplow.
Arsenal (4-3-2-1) Zinsberger; Evans, Williamson, Beattie, Mccabe; Walti, Little, Nobbs (Roord 87); Van de Donk, Mead (Maier 85); Miedema. Subs Quinn, Mitchell, Schnaderbeck, Peyraud-magnin (g).
Referee Abigail Byrne (Suffolk).