Winning the Women’s FA Cup would be a “fairytale ending”, says Tottenham captain Bethany England, after saving the club from the threat of relegation last season.
Spurs face Leicester City in the competition’s semi-finals on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after defeating Manchester City with a dramatic penalty shoot-out triumph. With both Tottenham and the Foxes reaching this stage for the first time in their respective histories, the FA Cup final at Wembley will be guaranteed to feature a debutant in the showpiece event.
That one match stands between Spurs and Wembley Stadium risks feeling like a fever dream when juxtaposed with the existential threat miring the club just one year ago. Indeed, a scintillating half-season from January arrival England, joining from serial winners Chelsea, was the catalysing factor in Spurs’ redemption arc, with the former Blue’s performance in the penultimate game of the season guaranteeing safety.
Since, Spurs’ trajectory has been nothing short of extraordinary with the club now sitting sixth in the table, just six points off last year’s runners-up Manchester United with a game in hand, and with an FA Cup final within grasp.
“As a whole, Tottenham have stepped up their game,” said England, who was forced to miss the first-half of Spurs’ season as she recovered from hip surgery.
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“We've brought in a new manager. We've brought in new players. The players that were there before Christmas, before they left, they'd done a phenomenal job since pre-season on kick-starting off Tottenham season,” the 29-year-old says.
“We started very strongly. We had a bit of a dip after Christmas in finding football but I feel like we're truly starting to find and see the fluidity again within the team and keeping more clean sheets and definitely looking more threatening in the attack as well.”
The attack looks conspicuously more threatening with England back amongst the goals. In January, England's brace ignited a crucial 3-2 comeback victory over Sheffield United Women in the FA Cup fourth round. But the Lionesses striker had to wait to open her WSL account, finally doing so in a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Bristol City last month.
Bethany England's brace helped claw Tottenham back into their FA Cup tie against Championship side Sheffield United (Photo by Steve Bardens - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)“I was pleased because there's been a lot of conversations about scoring in the league,” she says. “There’s been a lot of pressure. To finally get off the mark and score that goal – and not only that but to then hit my 17th in the WSL as well – it was a proud day for me. Hopefully, now the first one is in, the rest will follow.”
Spurs fans will be hopeful the rest follow this weekend. While Tottenham's women's team have never reached this stage of the competition, the men's team have reached eight FA Cup semi-finals and lost all of them since their FA Cup triumph in 1991.
And with Ange Postecoglou's side out of the running for silverware this season, Robert Vilahamn's side could be the ones to end the club's 16-year wait for a major trophy.
England knows the territory of FA Cup finals and more intimately Wembley Stadium, the way the crowd’s anticipation grows and erupts at the arrival of a goal before swallowing everything in sound.
“You hear the noise volumes go from 0 to 100, it's just an amazing iconic venue,” she marvels. “Everyone wants to say that they've scored at Wembley and being in one of the biggest competitions in English football, the FA Cup, is something that people cherish forever.”
Bethany England celebrates England's Women's Euro2022 triumph at Wembley Stadium (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)Victory over Leicester City could tee up a tantalising clash with her former club Chelsea, who are bidding to retain their FA Cup title from last season in manager Emma Hayes' final season at the club.
England refrains from indulging any potential Chelsea rivalry chatter, instead focussing on her new club. Walking out under the Wembley arches as Tottenham captain would mark another relish-able moment, something different (not better, she discerns) to previous times when she graced the pitch: the 2021-22 FA Cup with Chelsea, the 2022 European Championships with England. But to score, to win -- England tempers herself.
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“We [Spurs] made history just getting to the semi-finals so the opportunity to walk out at Wembley in a final would be massive. Who knows which team we’d face, or Chelsea. It’ll be a very tough game but an amazing experience, especially for the girls to be able to play in such a big crowd.
“I don't think many of them have played in such big crowds or such an iconic venue like Wembley. It would definitely be a fairytale ending if I was able to lead the team there and we win it.”
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