Chelsea Women 1 v 0 Tottenham Hotspur Women

Sunday 8th September 2019
FA Women's Super League
Stamford Bridge, Fulham
Admission: Free
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 24,565

I would like to watch more women's football, but being played mostly on Sundays is not ideal for me. However, when it was announced that Chelsea Women would be staging their opening match of the Women's Super League season at Stamford Bridge - a ground I have been wanting to revisit for some time - and best of all, that all tickets would be completely free of charge, I booked my tickets and looked forward to the day out.

 

Stamford Bridge is conveniently located about a 5 minute walk from Fulham Broadway underground station, and the approach to the ground is impressive - a wide walkway with colourfully decorated walls either side, and at its end the stadium stands proudly tall, hemmed in between two train lines and various residential and hotel buildings. There is plenty around the exterior of the stadium to keep visitors entertained, including a large club "megastore", the "Shed Wall", the original back wall of the Shed End terrace and upon which posters of various club legends are placed. A statue of Peter Osgood is located outside the West Stand, the upper tier of which I chose my tickets for, which is usually the most expensive part of the stadium to sit in, and indeed, the section offered an excellent and unobstructed view of the action, with padded seats and heaters attached from the roof for wintry days.

Although today's game was officially "sold out", it was most disappointing that around 15,000 persons reserved their tickets but did not actually show up, although the fact remains that a crowd of almost 25,000 is a remarkably good achievement for women's football, and something that would surely have been unthinkable, certainly for a domestic league fixture, just a few years ago, although surely mostly as a result of the bounce of women's football following England's energising World Cup campaign in the summer, it wasn't even the highest attedance of the weekend, as over 31,000 attended the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium. The programme produced for today was excellent, with a glossy hardened cover and 44 pages packed full of information about the Chelsea women's club, today's visitors, and other interesting articles to digest. At just £2.00, it certainly represented far better value that the programme sold for the same price at Burnham yesterday.

It was fair to say that Chelsea were overwhelming favourites to win this match, with odds of 1-9 ahead of kick off. Usually there or thereabouts in the top flight of the women's game, they finished last season in third place in the Super League last season, and reached the semi-final of the UEFA Women's Champions League, only losing 2-3 on aggregate to Lyon, reigning champions and who would go on to lift the trophy again. Tottenham Hotspur Women were promoted in second place from the Championship, and this would be their debut match in the top flight of women's football.

On a sunny early afternoon, with kick-off at 12.30, Chelsea started very much on the front foot, and took the lead with just 4 minutes on the clock with a truly fabulous goal by Bethany England, who dispossesed Spurs' Percival on the right wing, knocked the ball to a more central position before curling it from 25 yards into the far top corner, giving the keeper no chance. At the stage one feared for the Tottenham ladies, and indeed Chelsea would go on to dominate the first half, playing good possession football while Tottenham set themselves up very deep, probably wise in their efforts to stay in the game. And Chelsea could not find a way through again to grab a second goal despite coming close a few times, as did Spurs however.

The game was more even at the start of the second half, perhaps Chelsea's play lacked some urgency, and Spurs looked more of a threat. But they had a tremendous let-off on 59 minutes when Chelsea hit the woodwork twice in the same move. Ji So-Yun dribbled through midfield with the ball before passing to Drew Spence, who hit a powerful shot from 25 yards which Spurs keeper Becky Spencer pushed onto the crossbar, Guro Reiten headed the rebound against the post, and her follow up shot was blocked by a defender. In the closing minutes in particular, Chelsea really should have scored a second goal, but the final ball was lacking and in the end Chelsea opened their season with a victory, but that it was only by one goal looked most unlikely in the opening stages of the match. No doubt they were the better team for long periods, and they probably could have upped their game and intensity if they needed to, but Spurs will be happy to have kept the scoreline narrow in their debut match in the Women's Super League, although perhaps slightly disappointed not to have grabbed a point.

A full re-run of the match can be viewed by clicking here.