Hello Carly! Hi there, Small Talk!
So, the new Women’s Super League season is just starting out. What have you been up to all winter? Well the season ended at the start of October but we had to carry on training because we had a couple of internationals, so until then we weren’t allowed to do anything except the normal routine. We had a game at Wembley at the end of November, and then December’s our holiday month, so I went away for two weeks, came back, had Christmas and New Year at home with the family, and then come 5 January I was back in for pre-season.
Your team, Notts County, came sixth last year. What are you hoping for this season? Our ambitions are a lot higher. We started out last season quite ambitious, with the squad that we had, but we had major injuries – four ACLs, all to starters – so we lost four key players for the whole season. But since then we’ve strengthened and we’ve got them players back. At the back we’re pretty solid. We conceded the least goals last year. So if we can add to our defensive record then we should be looking alright.
So significantly higher than sixth, then? That’s the ambition, yeah. Champions League is a massive carrot for us. It would be nice to bring Champions League football to Nottingham. The city’s been deprived of anything like that and it would be good to bring it to a real footballing city if we can. So a top two finish. Obviously if we can go and win the league it would be brilliant. It’s not impossible, with the group that we’ve got. And the cups are there along the way.
If not you, who’s going to win the league? It was strong last year, but this year it’s strengthened. The big three of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea will be up and around there, but I think it’ll be tight. Birmingham have strengthened, and you’ve got Liverpool who ended up winning last year. I couldn’t pick a winner. Sometimes teams, perhaps like ourselves, on paper they might not have the stars but when it comes to playing, everyone hates playing us because they know we’re a good side. It’s hard to pick, but I’d like to think we’re going to be around it.
What about star players? Who are the Messis and Ronaldos of the WSL? You’ve probably heard of Eniola Eluko, she’s a fantastic player at Chelsea, probably one of the starlets. Defensively you’ve got Alex Scott at Arsenal and Steph Houghton, the England captain. They’re all players kids can look up to, from small towns, girls who were kicking the ball on the back lanes with the boys. That’s where we all came from and now look where we are. It gives every kid hope – even little boys. It’s not just girls who come along and want to be like us. That’s a real strange thing, but they just enjoy the game, and enjoy watching us score goals and save shots. That’s the beauty of kids, they don’t judge things, they just want to enjoy the game.
You were on the bench when England played Germany at Wembley last year, in front of 45,000 people. What was that like? It’s something you dream of as a kid. Everybody wants to play on the hallowed turf. I might not have played on it, but I certainly got to walk out and experience the atmosphere. It’s something I’ll always remember, being one of the first players to do that. It was quite a useful experience, coming into the World Cup, with the big crowd. Because at club games we’ll get between a thousand and maybe three thousand, then to walk out in front of 45,000, everything sort of changes. I think crowds will be like that in Canada, so it’ll be useful experience, and it was important for the women’s game, to pull in a decent crowd. Hopefully there’ll be another one for the FA Cup final at Wembley this year.
Can you sense a rising interest in the women’s game? Yeah. It’s quite interesting. When I go to get my hair done or my nails done or whatever, and they’ll recognise my accent’s not local, they’ll say, ‘So why are you in Nottingham?’ And I’ll tell them I play football, and they’re like, ‘Ah, isn’t women’s football on the up?’ So they know about it, and they’re beauticians and hairdressers and whatever, not really people who pay attention to football at all. But in the last few years Sky Sports have got on board, BT, BBC, they’re all really pushing it. And it’s nice that we have that now, because it gives young girls something to look forward to, that they can be on TV and whatever. When I was around the 17, 18 mark a lot of girls my age dropped out of football, good players, because there was no lifestyle there. There was no money in it, no future in it. But now a lot of us are full-time and enjoying the game as a job.
You first played in goal when your mum gave you a long-sleeved Sunderland goalkeeper’s jersey to wear to training because she thought it was too chilly for a short-sleeved one. As a lifelong Newcastle fan, though, what were you doing with a Sunderland top in the first place? Yeah, I was confused by that as well. I don’t know where she got it. I think that, because it was my first trial at this club, she’d gone out and thought, ‘I’ll buy a couple of new things.’ I think I was looking a bit straggly, so she bought me a new pair of socks and some shorts. I don’t know whether my Newcastle top was dirty, because I probably wore it every day knowing me, so she’d bought me this. It was one of those old-school ones that was really thick and it had padding on the arms all the way down. I remember it was freezing, stood there. The guy said, ‘I thought you played outfield but if you want to play in goal that’s alright.’ I just wanted to play, so I didn’t want to say no. Next minute I was in goal and I never came back out. That season I was Under-13 player of the league, manager’s player of the year, player’s player of the league, and it just escalated from there really. Mum takes all the credit.
Then you got scouted by Sunderland at 14, a call-up to England’s Under-17s at 15 – it all came very quickly for you. I did have one knockback. When I was 14 I had a trial at Liverpool, and I didn’t get picked for that and I was heartbroken. I thought that was it for me. Then I played for Sunderland, and from there I got selected for England. So yeah, I’ve been very lucky, very blessed. I was hindered by injury for a couple of years, but I’ve had a blessed career. I’d just turned 15 when I went to my first Under-19 tournament, and then went away with the Under-21s, and I was 18 when I got my first call-up to the seniors. So I’ve been around the England team for nearly 10 years now, and not many people can say that. But I haven’t played enough – I’ve probably only got about 10 caps to my name, and I’d have like a little bit more.
Is it a frustration that you’ve been in so many squads but played so little? It is. It’s hard, being a goalkeeper, because there’s a No1. You understand how it works. I’ve always been there or thereabouts and if I look at the keepers ahead of me, Rachel Brown probably didn’t get her first regular run in the team until she was 25 or 26; Karen Bardsley, I think she was 29 when she played first and she’s now consistently No1. So probably between 26 and 29 is when you start coming into things as a goalkeeper, and I’m 27 now. They look for experience in a keeper, so it’s learning that, and just to keep a level head and keep wanting to be better. But it’s a frustrating place to be, knowing that you’re there but not quite there. Having said that, it’s an honour to be involved, and my time will come I’m sure.
You’re 5ft 7in, a lot shorter than most top-level male goalkeepers. Is that an issue at all? It’s funny you should mention that. Goalkeepers get criticised a lot for getting lobbed, so we’ve had to learn as females that because we’re not as tall we have to find an area that’s best for us. We might have to work on our angles more than some of the guys would, and can’t have as high a starting position. Because the girls can hit it as far and as hard as the men, and they don’t hold back – so if you’re not in goal they’re going to ping one over your head. You see the guys out of their box and patrolling outside their area, and standing outside the six-yard box to save shots from 18 yards, but we can’t afford to do that because we’re only little, and our range in stretching and stuff is far smaller. I don’t think we were taught enough at a young age about that, and that’s kind of to our detriment, and that’s why you still see a lot of goals going over people’s heads, but it’s getting better. The coaching’s getting better, and people are more aware of the women’s game and how it’s a little different to the men’s. The outfielders have advanced so far that we’re now playing catch-up with them lot.
You were the player of the match in the 2008 FA Cup final even though your team, Leeds, lost 4-1 to Arsenal. How does that work? It’s hard explaining that to someone who wasn’t there. I think there were 35 shots on target and only four goals scored. I must have made about 25 or 30 saves in the game. It was kind of like a bombardment, but I came out smelling of roses somehow. I don’t know how. It was mixed emotions, because everyone was talking about how well I’d played, but I’d lost. I’d rather do nothing all game and be stood on the podium with a winner’s medal, but that’s how it goes. It was memorable in a good and bad way for me. We still talk about that day, when I see some of the other girls. It was about 30C, and we just defended for our lives, for 90 minutes.
What music do you like to listen to? I’m very generic, I listen to all sorts of stuff. I have a playlist I listen to sometimes on game day, with a lot of stuff from movie soundtracks. Stuff from Lord of the Rings, Batman, stuff like that. I find that gets me pumped sometimes. But in general it can be anything from RnB, I love a little house and dance trance, to the slow, soppy stuff. Honestly, if you were to look at my Spotify you’d be like, ‘What is wrong with this person?’ There’s no conformity to it at all, it’s just all over.
Do you get to many concerts? I’d like to go to more but football always ruins everything. I’d love to go to some festivals. I went to the Summer Stampede that Mumford & Sons headlined in 2013, and that was amazing. I love them and I was over the moon to see them live, it was a baking hot day and it was brilliant. That was probably my last concert. They’re always at night-time when we’ve got training, or at the weekend when we’ve got games, and I can’t get to festivals because we play in the summer.
What about the cinema, then? Well I don’t really like the cinema, because you just sit there for three hours not doing anything, and I don’t really like that. I don’t mind watching a DVD, though. I’m a real comedy girl. I like to have a good laugh. Nothing emotional – I’m not a cryer at all. I don’t like to see animals getting hurt, or people who fall in love and then someone dies. I like to enjoy my movies. Bridesmaids was a big one. It’s just a go-to movie if you’re having a movie night.
So who’d play you in a film of your life? Someone like that chick out of Twilight, what’s her name? [Small Talk supplies her name]. Yeah, Kristen Stewart. She’s quite cool, quite chilled but quite feisty as well and a bit of a tomboy. We’ll go with that.
The Queen’s coming over for dinner. What are you going to cook for her? Oh she’d have to have one of my specialities. So sweet potato mash, with sausages – proper good sausages, though, none of those cheap ones. Off a farm, with loads of herbs in – and some good old onion and mushroom gravy all over the top of it.
That sounds right up her street, actually. Right, it’s my round, what are you having?I’ll have a Steamboat [it’s a Southern Comfort-based cocktail], with soda and lime. Make it a double, thanks. A treble, if you’re paying.
I’m not, it’s on expenses, so go wild. Who’d win a fight between a lion and a tiger? A tiger. Because the tiger out of the Jungle Book looks really mean, and lions sometimes look not as mean.
Right. Finally, can you tell us a joke? A joke? Hang on [runs around asking everyone near her if they can think of a joke, until someone says they can]. What do you call a donkey with three legs? A wonkey.
Well we’re going to need some time to control our mirth after that one. Thanks Carly! Bye Small Talk!
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The FA Women’s Super League is exclusively live on BT Sport and continues tonight as Carly Telford’s Notts County visit Arsenal (BT Sport 1 from 7.30pm). For highlights, news, views and interviews throughout the season watch the FA WSL Review Show on Sunday nights at 10pm on BT Sport.
