“The pressure tonight is not on us — it’s on them,” Tottenham Hotspur Women captain Bethany England says to her team-mates as they gather in their dressing room huddle before facing Manchester United.
“Let’s play freely, let’s play calmly, enjoy the ball but let’s play with purpose. We’ve talked about being gladiators. From the first whistle to the last, we stick together because there is strength in numbers. Let’s enjoy possession of the ball and let’s go give them a f****** fight.”
Hands in the middle, her voice rises: “Spurs on three,” she shouts. “One, two, three… Spurs!” The sound of the bell indicating two minutes until the teams line up cuts through the cheers. It’s game time.
The Athletic has been given exclusive access to follow the team throughout the week leading up to their Women’s Super League (WSL) fixture against Manchester United. From the training ground to the team bus, from the pre-match tactics to the post-match on-field huddle, we experience the highs and lows of a week in the life of a club hoping to close the gap on WSL’s big hitters.
The Athletic arrives at Hotspur Way in the wake of Tottenham’s 7-0 WSL defeat to Manchester City.
Defeats like this are painful, but the context is important. Spurs have only…
