We’ve Got A Live One Here… (Grace Clinton Interview)

Nineteen and on loan at Bristol City from Manchester United, Grace Clinton is enjoying herself. She talks through the initiation songs, Smelly Cat at Everton on Megan Finnigan’s insistence and Stand By Me alongside Gracie Pearse in the West Country, and rates herself sixty-five out of a hundred on the dressing-room scale. She is clear-eyed about the loan: United were always a big jump, she had not played consistent minutes at Everton, and a red card and a lack of match sharpness slowed her start before a performance against Crystal Palace felt like the real thing. She calls herself an out-and-out ten, praises Bristol City’s forwards, and says the Barmy Army are the first fan base that make a women’s game feel like a men’s.