Maybe it’s a sign of how the women’s game is growing, but even the stadium announcer sounded surprised when he tannoyed, midway through the second half of Chelsea v Spurs, that 2,400 people had turned up to Kingsmeadow. To a pre-season friendly.
The Blues won comfortably; the fact that the scoreline stayed at 2-0 is explained by tiring legs.
This was an unusual friendly as manager Emma Hayes set out to play 90 minutes using no substitutes.
Earlier in the day, half the squad – including club captain Magda Eriksson, Sam Kerr, Sophie Ingle, Millie Bright and Niamh Charles – had played a friendly at the Cobham training ground against the youth team (beating the kids 4-3).
The other half played Spurs, but while Tottenham manager Rehanne Skinner named nine subs, and used six of them, Hayes kept her starting line-up on the pitch to the final whistle.
First-half goals from Pernille Harder and Lauren James were enough to secure the win in what started as a lively contest, but steadily dropped in pace.
Harder’s goal came after a quarter of an hour. Right-back Jess Carter fed the ball back into the mix in the Tottenham goalmouth after Guro Reiten’s corner was partially cleared, and Harder lashed it home as she stumbled over. James made it 2-0 in the 39th minute, stabbing the ball into the far corner past Becky Spencer’s despairing dive.
Spurs (including former Blue Drew Spence) almost clawed a goal back before the interval after Carter undercooked a backpass to keeper Zecira Musovic, currently taking the place of Ann-Katrin Berger who has announced she has a recurrence of thyroid cancer after four years’ remission. Rosella Ayane pounced on the error, rounded the keeper and fired at goal, but captain Maren Mjelde, the Blues’ player of the match, made a heroic last-gasp goalline clearance.
Pick of the crop for Spurs was Jess Naz, a 21-year-old striker whose ball control and energy impressed.
It was a chance for the Kingsmeadow faithful to cast an eye over new summer signings including Eve Perisset, who played the first half as left-back and the second as right-back, and forward Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd who (mercifully for replica shirt buyers) has settled on ‘Kaneryd’ above her No19.
The fans also had the chance to see Erin Cuthbert (the Scottish Messi, as one song puts it) in a new position in front of the back four; a role usually taken by Sophie Ingle. She did well, although in a straight comparison of the two, Ingle’s height advantage gives her an edge in aerial combat in midfield.
Hayes said that both halves of her squad had “really, really needed” a 90-minute workout. She said that the team had dropped its standards in the second half and that “our movement left a lot to be desired”, but was positive overall.
Now the build-up starts to the first proper game on 11 September, against West Ham Women, which is being staged at Stamford Bridge. Tickets are available, and the game will be screened live on BBC Two.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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