Issue
June 2023 29 articles indexed
Read She Kicks issue 79 in full
Column / Opinion p.3
Jen O'Neill writes at the end of a season she measures in crowds: an SWPL best of 15,822 at Celtic Park, a packed Kingsmeadow and Leigh Sports Village, almost 45,000 at the Wolfsburg-Freiburg Pokal…
News pp.4–5
Two pages closing the domestic season and opening the next cycle. The first UEFA Women's Nations League draw puts England with the Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland, with three Paris 2024 Olympic places ultimately at…
Match report pp.6–8
A world-record crowd for a domestic women's game, 77,390, filled a sunny Wembley to watch cup-final debutants Manchester United have the better of a first half they could not convert. Chelsea, some way off…
Other pp.8–9
She Kicks worked the concourse at a sold-out Wembley and came back with three groups. Michael and David, long-time Chelsea fans from Stoke Newington, follow the women because it is more entertaining than the…
Poster p.10
A full-page team poster of Manchester United lined up before the 2023 Vitality Women's FA Cup final, their first, photographed in two rows across the Wembley turf with the crowd banked behind them in…
Cover feature pp.11–15
Eight years after breaking through at Liverpool, Aston Villa's left-back has a law degree, a starting place in the WSL's most improved side and real England ambitions. Maz Pacheco is generous with advice she…
Other pp.16–17
Twelve pictures from the closing two months of the Barclays Women's Super League season, captioned in full. Beth England celebrates one of two goals in the 4-1 win over Reading that kept Spurs up;…
Interview pp.18–19
A Leicester City product who made her name in midfield at Doncaster Rovers Belles and as a combative striker for Birmingham City in the early WSL, Rachel Williams scored the goal that took Manchester…
Interview pp.20–23
A WSL champion with Arsenal in 2019 and a standout Everton signing for her compatriot Brian Sorensen, Katrine Veje spent much of the season injured: a knee against Manchester United, then a hamstring twice…
Interview pp.24–27
At 32 Victoria Williams got an email from the Jamaican federation telling her she had been selected, and at 33 she is close to a World Cup. Her father is Jamaican and she had…
Column / Opinion p.28
Written with Tottenham's WSL place secured by a 4-1 win over Reading, Kerys Harrop looks back on a season she calls disappointing on the table if not in spirit, with a lot of change…
Interview pp.29–31
Via France and Denmark, Kyra Carusa reached English football this season with a London City Lionesses side that finished three points off the Championship title, and she is chasing a first major tournament with…
Poster pp.32–33
A double-page poster of England celebrating the 2023 Finalissima at Wembley, taken on the podium under the tournament's arched backdrop with the flag of St George mounted at either end. Medals hang from every…
Interview pp.34–35
Southampton's first Championship season ended sixth with only champions Bristol City conceding fewer than their fifteen, and Kayla Rendell kept ten clean sheets in twenty-two games behind that record. The goalkeeper, who won the…
Poster p.38
A full-page poster of Glasgow City as Scottish Women's Premier League champions for 2022-23, the squad and staff lined up in two rows behind a WINNERS 2022/23 board with flame jets firing at either…
Interview pp.39–41
Kirsty Howat's return from a 2021 ACL injury reached its high point in December, when she scored in the League Cup final win over Hibernian at Tynecastle, Scotland's first women's league game shown live…
Interview pp.42–43
Heart of Midlothian finished fourth in the 2022-23 SWPL under Eva Olid and Ciara Grant was central to it, taking the club's Player of the Year award and a place in the middle of…
Match report pp.44–45
Cardiff City finished an unbeaten Genero Adran Premier campaign with 54 points from a possible 60, sealed by a 3-1 win over Swansea City at Cardiff City Stadium in April. Katy Hosford curled Swansea…
Match report pp.46–48
Poppy Wilson's 17th-minute header, nodded in from a Gemma Davison cross, returned Watford to the Barclays Women's Championship a year after relegation on the last kick of 2021-22, and settled the last play-off decider…
Match report p.47
A late, late winner by midfielder Rebecca Anderson gave Nottingham Forest the FA Women's National League Cup in a pulsating final at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium, watched by 1,358. Forest had to come from…
Interview pp.49–53
Bristol City's promotion back to the WSL was sealed with a game to spare, and the trophy then toured the city so thoroughly that a message went round the staff group the next morning…
Interview p.54
Mexico's Pamela Tajonar joined Celtic last summer and has been immense between the sticks, her sharp reflexes in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Glasgow City taking the Hoops to an Old Firm final with…
Interview p.55
Fifty-one England caps, two World Cup semi-finals and a bronze medal in 2015, plus spells at Atletico Madrid and Orlando Pride: Jade Moore's career gives the Kit Check plenty to work with. The Manchester…
Interview pp.56–57
Pet Corner returns for a second run and lands a Lioness. Beth England introduces two golden retrievers: Buddy, nearly four, named because a first dog was always going to be a best mate whatever…
Interview pp.58–59
Sunderland's California-born centre-back, a Scotland international and former Rangers captain, has no car in the UK but a red Jeep Wrangler waiting at home. Bri Westrup's dad retired while she was in elementary school…
Interview p.59
Charlton Athletic's Freda Ayisi has been causing a stir with her Freda Ayisi Football Challenges, serving up skills alongside the Brazil men's legends Cafu and Roberto Carlos, so the magazine turned the conversation from…
Other p.60
This issue's Born Kicking reader is nine-year-old Iyla Andrews-Gauvain, who lives in Cambridgeshire, plays for ICA Sports FC Under-9s and supports Wolverhampton Wanderers Women. She is a right-footed defender because she likes stopping the…
Poster p.61
A full-page poster of Leah Williamson in the England shirt, number five, holding a medal out towards the camera on the Wembley pitch after the 2023 Finalissima, her name and the word Lioness set…
Other p.62
The issue's puzzle page is built on a photograph of England celebrating the 2023 Finalissima, doctored in eleven places for readers to find. The caption supplies the context the poster spread earlier in the…
