It has become fashionable for footballers to talk about their personal journeys. These frequently involve long, hard roads back from serious injury or rejection at youth level but few feature treks as arduous, debilitating and downright painful as Fran Kirby’s.
A Football Association official sitting in the stands at a stadium set amid the serenity of Moncton University’s attractive campus was starting to resign himself to never having seen a senior England team win a match at a major tournament when Kirby renewed a nation’s faith. After deceiving a couple of defenders she directed the most subtle of second-half toe pokes into the net via the inside of a post.
At a stroke the Lionesses’ hopes of qualifying from Group F were enhanced appreciably while Kirby’s “journey” had reached a key staging post. On Saturday evening the diminutive forward was labelled “our mini Messi” by Mark Sampson, England’s coach. Yet four years ago the Reading striker walked out of an England Under-19 camp, cancelled plans to accept a sports scholarship in the United States and told her club coaches she was quitting football.
Kirby, who is now 21, had sunk into a severe depression, almost certainly a delayed reaction to the sudden death of her mother, Denise, from a brain haemorrhage when Kirby was 14. The 18-year-old Kirby suddenly found herself struggling to get up in the morning, to get dressed, to leave her bedroom, to eat. Thanks to skilled medical help allied to the support of her father (on Sunderland’s books as a youngster but now a train driver) and brother she, slowly, began recovering.
Tutors at her sixth form college were delighted to note a renewed interest in life and learning and one day, after a year without football, Kirby took the field for a Sunday parks team. Another 12 months on she returned to Reading and started scoring goals again.
Reading are in the second tier of the Women’s Super League and bigger clubs soon came calling but Kirby stayed loyal. Last season she became the first player from that second division to earn a professional contract with England. On Saturday her first World Cup start was akin to a Championship player turning out for Roy Hodgson’s side.
Unlike certain team-mates apparently unnerved by the pressures of atoning for Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat against France, Kirby, deployed in a wide right attacking role, terrorised Mexico from the off. Few were surprised when Bianca Sierra, their left-back, was replaced.
“It’s credit to the trust Mark and the girls have put in me,” said Kirby. “Four years ago was a difficult time but I’ve pulled through. I was so happy today because of the journey I’ve been on. I now know coming back was the right thing to do.”
With Colombia astounding everyone by beating France 2-0 in the day’s earlier Group F game, England knew a defeat would have dictated an unscheduled return to Heathrow on Thursday. Now, though, Sampson’s side prepare to face the South American side in Montreal on Wednesday with the group wide open and everything to play for.
The England coach had not only seen the arguably brave decision to bring Kirby to Canada vindicated but deserved credit for his introduction of the gifted Karen Carney from the bench. Carney’s ability to “play between the lines” lifted England to another level while thoroughly bewildering Mexico. It was no coincidence she helped create Kirby’s goal before heading England’s second following Alex Greenwood’s superb cross.
A loss of concentration in stoppage time permitted Fabiola Ibarra to reduce the deficit and, with goal difference potentially determining Group F’s final placings, that concession could yet exert a significant bearing on England’s journey through Canada.
Sufficiently relaxed to joke about his habit of accentuating “the positives” and a new, ultra-severe haircut, Sampson was simply too relieved to have secured his first tournament win to be overly concerned by the potential permutations. “We took some flak after the France game,” he said. “But we responded well. And our mini Messi is one of those special players who step up at special moments.”
England Bardsley; Bronze (A Scott, 83), Houghton, Bassett, Rafferty (Greenwood, 52); J Scott (Carney, 67), Williams, Moore; Kirby, Aluko, Duggan.
Mexico Santiago; Robles, Ruiz, Garciamendez, Sierra (Miranda, ht); Rangel, Mayor, Ocampo (Ibarra, 89), V Perez; Corral, Cuéllar (Sánchez, 77).
Referee A-M Keighley (NZ)
