As the coach pulls into the car park just outside Wembley stadium, Manchester City’s supporters burst into song: “City, City, the best team in the land and all the world!” They’ve travelled down to London en masse for a cup final against West Ham and are in joyful mood as they stride off to Wembley Way, not so much intent on soaking up the atmosphere as creating it.
Among their posse is Sarah Bland, aka Blandie, the chair of Manchester City Women’s Official Supporters’ Club, who has seen the women’s domestic game grow at a phenomenal rate since the inception of the Women’s Super League in 2011 and its professionalisation last year.
“Going into our first professional season we had crowds of maybe 50 people but now you’re looking at 2,000 or so for every game,” she says. “The fan base gets bigger every year. Our supporters’ club alone has now got over 200 members – we’re the biggest in the league.
“I think people are seeing how good women’s football is. They see the girls on TV these days and they see that the women’s game is becoming amazing – it’s not like the past when people assumed women couldn’t play football.”
City fans arriving by coach. All photographs by Jonny Weeks
Bland is also Manchester City’s official drummer. As we search for a suitable backdrop for a quick portrait, she spots a shop with a picture of bananas on the wall. “That’ll be perfect,” she says. “We’re known for our bananas.”
Fellow City supporter Dave Sheel explains: “Back in the 80s the men’s team used to have a Hungarian player called Imre Varadi and his nickname became ‘Imre banana’. One bloke then brought a massive inflatable banana to a game and it snowballed from there. At one point City’s players even ran out onto the pitch carrying bananas. So it’s an old City tradition and on special days like this we bring out our bananas.”
City supporter Sarah Bland with her drum.
At nearby Box Park, Jo Bailey and several fellow West Ham fans are meeting for a pre-match drink.
“I’m a season ticket holder for West Ham women and this (the cup final) is history for us,” she says. “I was at the 1980 West Ham men’s FA Cup final when we won 1-0 against Arsenal. My dad took me, I was about seven or eight, and I’ve been hooked on football ever since. This is my first time back at Wembley since then.”
West Ham women’s team have undergone a remarkable transformation in the past 12 months, jumping from the third tier to the WSL this season after being promoted by the Football Association.
“I’m so proud to see the girls here and the progression they’ve made in the last few seasons,” Bailey adds. “We may be the underdogs today but that’s like in 1980, so it might be a lucky charm.
“Women’s football is a really inclusive environment. In the stands we all mix together with the opposition fans and it’s juts a happy place to be. In the 1920s the women’s game was more popular than the men’s and to me it’s like it’s on a wheel – women’s football has come back to where it should be. I’m really excited for the next few years.”
West Ham fans including Jo Bailey (second right) and Claire Sweeney (centre).
Beside her, Claire Sweeney is enthusiastically making the ‘Irons’ symbol with her arms. “I’m a West Ham men’s season ticket holder and have been for 27 years but I actually follow Arsenal women home and away,” she admits, to a chorus of jeers.
“My best friend is an Arsenal fan and he dragged me along to the women against my best intentions and I fell in love with them. But today I’m here supporting West Ham women, of course.”
Meanwhile another member of the group, Richael O’Brien, is trying to give her nephew, Eddie O’Brien, a temporary West Ham tattoo. After a short wait, she peels back the sticker to reveal the words West Ham Unite. “Oh no, it’s missing the D!” she says. “But it’s alright, it kinda works.”
Eddie O’Brien gets a temporary West Ham United tattoo.
Inside Wembley, the players undertake their pre-match warm-ups. For the Hammers, who lie seventh in the league table, just reaching the final has been a huge achievement. Ominously, however, they lost their previous matches with City this season 7-1 and 3-1.
Manager Matt Beard says in the matchday programme: “If we can get our hands on the cup it would be one of the greatest stories in the history of women’s football.”
City have already won the Continental League Cup this term and are currently unbeaten domestically, although they narrowly lost their battle for the league title to Arsenal. Their squad features Nikita Parris, the PFA women’s player of the year, who has netted on average a goal a game in the league this season, as well as Georgia Stanway, the Young PFA women’s player of the year.
Parris said before the match: “The pioneers of the game have done fantastic to get it this far. Now it’s our time to push it even further.”
Pre-match warm-ups and traditions ahead of kick-off.
There’s a large crowd of 43,264 people – many of them youngsters – though the figure falls short of the record attendance for a women’s match, which was 53,000 back in 1920. The record might well have been broken had the Premier League allowed West Ham to move its men’s fixture with Southampton to prevent a clash of timings.
Nevertheless, there’s a loud din as the game gets underway, not least because West Ham are unexpectedly doing all of the early attacking.
West Ham on the attack, including pictures of Alisha Lehmann vying for a header and Jane Ross running at City’s defence.
The best of the first half action flows through striker Jane Ross (pictured above). In the 29th minute, her powerful downward header is denied by City goalkeeper Karen Bardsley, who somehow claws the ball around the post in a fashion reminiscent of Gordon Banks against Pele in 1970.
It’s 0-0 at half-time but there’s plenty of action for the BBC Sport pundits to analyse. West Ham’s young director of football, Jack Sullivan, son of club co-owner David Sullivan, looks buoyant as he prepares to join Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Rachel Brown-Finnis pitchside.
Gilly Flaherty slides into a tackle.
Jack Sullivan, the young director of West Ham Women, before going on TV.
Watching the second half from on high, radio pundits Jonathan Pearce, Sue Smith and Casey Stoney, the Manchester United women’s manager, have a great view as City begin to dominate territorially. In the 52nd minute, Keira Walsh lets fly with an ambitious effort from 25 yards which wrong-foots West Ham keeper Anna Moorhouse and finds the bottom corner of the net. At first the pundits wonder if the shot was deflected but replays suggest otherwise.
City are ruthless thereafter, exposing their opponents time and again as they become visibly fatigued. In the 81st minute, Georgia Stanway darts into the box and scores at the far post. Then seven minutes later Lauren Hemp exposes Moorhouse once again, beating her to the ball at the edge of the penalty box before lifting it first-time into the empty net.
Manchester City have an unassailable 3-0 lead and West Ham’s players look devastated as the final whistle approaches.
City’s first two goalscorers Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway are pictured as the favourites take an unassailable lead.
West Ham’s Kate Longhurst looks dejected as the game enters its closing stages.
Having received the trophy in the stands, City’s players assemble on the pitch for the customary team-photo. However, the spectacle turns into a farce when City’s reserve goalkeeper, Ellie Roebuck, jumps the gun and splurges champagne straight into the eyes of her captain, Steph Houghton, before the pyrotechnics even begin. Houghton looks genuinely dazed and the media are left rueing a flunked photo opportunity. Eventually, the partying begins in earnest.
City’s players celebrate with the trophy.
West Ham’s Vyan Sampson takes photos with a group of kids.
When the hugs, knee-slides and selfies are over, both sets of players meet their supporters to sign autographs and take photographs. “I think sometimes you get caught up in the bubble of matches and training and you forget what’s on the outside,” Stanway says after the match. “If we inspire ten girls we’ve done our job, but hopefully today we inspire thousands.”
