This weekend, at long last, fans were allowed back in limited numbers to the FA Women’s Super League. Ben Gilby was one of the lucky seven hundred supporters at Kingsmeadow for Chelsea’s game with West Ham United.
Watching a game in the FA Women’s Super League is a very different experience indeed – but whilst forward planning and patience are the watchwords, the rewards are oh so wonderful!
The process of attending Chelsea v West Ham United began on Monday afternoon when seven hundred tickets went on sale through Chelsea FC’s website, and being held in a “virtual waiting room” for what seemed an eternity the magic happened and ticket purchased.
Additionally, everyone attending was required to fill in a Coronavirus questionnaire ahead of the game and you would only be allowed entry to the stadium if you could fill it in, send it back and print off a reply telling you that you were cleared to attend the game medically. Coronavirus questionnaires came through early on Sunday morning which meant setting the alarm for an ungodly hour to fill it in online and there was then a short wait before the most awaited email that I have had in 2020 arrived at around 7:30am. I was officially in.
Whilst no-one is able to use their passports to go on holiday right now, if you’ve missed brandishing it this year, fear not, because you need it to get into Kingsmeadow. So, let’s see – Ticket printed out? Check! Covid questionnaire proof of health printed? Check! Passport? Check! Great – off to Kingsmeadow we go.
Leaving the house feeling as bouncy as a kid on Christmas morning, I made the short trip to Kingsmeadow feeling more excited than I can ever remember being for a football match in all my forty-one years on this planet. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Then, this view, which I had started to think I would never see again:
Taking my place in the stadium an hour and a half before kick-off was a chance to catch up with familiar faces again after all those months hidden away, and embark on another pre-match ritual. It’s well known that Sam Kerr is my women’s football hero. The Western Australian branch of my own family live just 20 minutes up the road from where Sam was brought up in East Fremantle, so every game at Kingsmeadow since her arrival has seen me unfurl and tie up an Aussie flag on the barrier – today, the Matildas Active Support flag – representing the supporters club for Australian women’s football. It’s an honour to represent them at FAWSL games this season.
The first sighting of the players to come out and warm up was met by huge cheers. The first songs started up and it was quite emotional to see Guro Reiten joining in with some of the chants too once they started!
The Chelsea line-up included Beth England, Sam Kerr, Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby from the start for the first time and the movement and connection between the four was quite magnificent all afternoon long.
West Ham, with Billy Stewart taking over the reins after Matt Beard’s departure started well, but the front four of Chelsea made the difference. Fran Kirby pulled in a low cross on the quarter hour mark and Kerr steered the ball home.
Almost immediately afterwards, the Hammers could have levelled. Maren Mjelde’s pass was gobbled up by Rachel Daly who bore down on goal to reach a one on one with Ann-Katrin Berger, but the German shot stopper stood up well to the effort and saved the day.
Chelsea possibly should have had a second, but West Ham United’s Australian international Mackenzie Arnold made fantastic saves from Ji and Melanie Leupolz.
If any of the gathered supporters felt that a run away second half would transpire, they were put right just two minutes after the re-start when Daly swept home following a less than impressive interlude in the Chelsea defence.
Any hope West Ham had was ultimately snuffed out by Fran Kirby who was in outstanding form down the left and it was her probing and great deliveries that sparked Chelsea’s attacking prowess throughout the half.
Kirby’s creativity was also added to by Pernille Harder and it was the Danish superstar that played in a cross that Mackenzie Arnold could only push into the path of Sam Kerr to smash home her second.
It was Kirby who produced the cross for Chelsea’s third when Kerr completed her first hat-trick in English football, injuring her hip, most likely in a collision with West Ham’s Cecilie Redisch in the process of scoring. Erin Cuthbert replaced Kerr as a result, with the Scot coming on to produce another outstanding Scottish Terrier like performance.
Chelsea were comfortable at 3-1 – possibly too comfortable – and another worrying defensive lapse ended with Magda Eriksson deflecting Emily van Egmond’s effort into her own net.
The home side deserved their win and were hugely impressive coming forward at times, but concerns remain about the defence when Millie Bright and Magda Eriksson are not playing together in the starting line up.
Teams:
CHELSEA: Berger, Thorisdottir, Mjelde, Eriksson, Andersson, Leupolz, Ji, Kirby, Harder, Kerr, England. Substitutes: Bright, Ingle, Carter, Reiter, J. Fleming, Charles, Cuthbert, Telford (GK).
Scorers: Kerr 15, 55, 68.
WEST HAM UNITED: Arnold, Redisch, Flaherty, Fisk, Vetterlein, Longhurst, Cho, van Egmond, Daly, Thomas, Leon. Substitutes: Lehmann, Svitkova, Mustafa, Grant, Brosnan, Joel, Dali, Cissoko, Kiszkis.
Scorers: Daly 47. Eriksson (OG) 88.
Referee: Rebecca Welch.
Attendance: 700.
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