The game begins and the week ends with team talks, both of them held on the pitch in tight circles. One is delivered in the moments before kick-off by Amber-Keegan Stobbs, the Newcastle United captain. “First tackle, hit them hard,” she yells at her fellow players over the clamour of clapping and loudspeakers. “Second tackle, hit them harder. Everything we do, we do together.”
The other is less urgent and comes after the final whistle. Newcastle, who are in the third tier of women’s football, have won. They are top of their league. “I’m so proud of you,” Amanda Staveley, one of the club’s co-owners, says. “You’ve come so far.” The players jostle her and giggle, dancing in celebration. She groans and joins in.
Between the huddles, Staveley stands in front of Box 6 at Kingston Park stadium, home of the Newcastle Falcons rugby union team, watching the match and discussing budgets with Su Cumming, the head of women’s football. As children, neither were permitted to play. Now, they allow others to fulfil their dreams, handing out professional contracts.
Stobbs is one. A Newcastle fan from south London who was named after Kevin Keegan, she is living her “second act”. “There have been plenty of times in my life when I thought, ‘What am I here for?’…
