She Kicks Back: 2013 and 2014, When The Reds Ripped Up The WSL (Liverpool’s back-to-back titles)

Liverpool finished bottom in 2012 and then won the league twice. Matt Beard, their manager, explains how: Birmingham had come close with a core of British players, so Liverpool became the first side to recruit seriously from overseas, bringing in Whitney Engen and Amanda DaCosta and building a spine around Gemma Bonner, Katrin Omarsdottir, Fara Williams and Natasha Dowie. Becky Easton, released by Everton at 37 and given a trial, finished with two winner’s medals at 40, and remembers waiting on the pitch for two other results on the final day of 2014. Nicole Rolser, the first German to sign for an English club, recalls training alongside Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez, and a Liverpool mug she kept on her desk for years until she dropped it.