The Day We Won The Cup

Apologies that this is so late in coming, I’ve been busy with all sorts of things, but there is one day since I was last on here that, if you know me, you’ll be expecting me to write about.

So…Sunday, 31st July, 2022.

Set off from Portsmouth in good time, got the Bakerloo from Waterloo and arrived at Wembley Central just before noon. Headed for my now traditional eaterie, German Doner Kebab, for lunch - I figured eating German wouldn’t jinx the Lionesses, as I’d spent the semi-final with Sweden drinking Swedish Kopparberg ciders (had to watch that one on telly).

Walked along Wembley Way to the Novotel. I wouldn’t be able to check in until 3pm so joined the queue at the bar. The place was absolutely heaving with England fans. I got a Rekorderlig at the bar and found a little table in a corner behind a pillar.

After a little while Kayleigh messaged to say she and Maria were on their way. At 1.15 she phoned me to say they were in the hotel reception, were looking around and couldn’t see me. I directed her round to my little corner. Before long they showed up by my table, we said hello and I said to Kayleigh that it was the first time we’d met since my leaving do (in February 2020), Kayleigh treated me to a big bear hug then she introduced me to Maria, who was a cheerful slim black girl with long flowing hair.

Having been presented with a The Gang issue of the Free Lionesses silk scarf at the Spain match, I now had two, so presented Kayleigh with the one with the Beth England tweet on.

They went to get drinks and order food and we just sat and chatted until 3 o’clock. Kayleigh said she was glad to be off work at the moment as the place is pretty stressful nowadays; she said she now has to deal with Mary Hinge a lot and she’s very demanding. Kayleigh asked me to find her the video clip I’d made in 2017 of Lucy Bronze saying hello to her; to her delight, I eventually found it after trawling Facebook.

3 o’clock came, I checked in, got my room keycard and dumped my bag in the room. On my way back down, in the lift with me were a group of people including Stephanie Roche, the Irish international, who was there working for the Irish TV broadcaster RTE. I said hello and that I was honoured to meet her and added “Hope to see you back in the WSL soon”.

Kayleigh and Maria were outside the front door when I returned, as Kayleigh needed a fag. I told them about meeting Steph in the lift; they looked around at other people coming out of the hotel, hoping to spot media personalities.

We joined the throng of fans pouring down Wembley Way. We looked back once or twice, mightily impressed at the sheer number there. This was it, all of us here for the Women’s Euro Final, here for the Lionesses. We were all football, and the Twitter detractors of the women’s game were just muggy boneheads.

Kayleigh was looking for one of those clacking fans made of folded-up.cardboard to wave; we asked a couple of the souvenir sellers if they were being handed out, one of them said “inside the stadium”. I bought a programme, Kayleigh and Maria got one between them.

We walked on up to the stadium and made our way to the Yellow Zone entrance, stopping for Kayleigh to have one last ciggy before we went in. All our tickets were in my phone; happily, it was easy enough for me to hold my phone up to the reader and allow the other two to go through the turnstile before I went in.

We had great seats, in a corner section 17 rows up from the front. We watched the players warm up. Kayleigh and Maria were very impressed with the singers and dancers in the pre-match show. Huge balloons with UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2022 on them rose into the air; banners with the England and Germany badges on dropped down from them. The teams were read; we noted with approval that Sarina had stuck with the starting eleven that had got us all this way. Pyrotechnics flared up in tall columns all around the pitch.

The teams emerged, we stood for the national anthems and then…the game was on! I sat rapt, feeling and living every kick. Ellen White headed at the German goalie. Mary Earps made a couple of great saves. Both teams had penalty shouts denied. Ellen shot over the bar and then it was half time.

Kayleigh and Maria went to get refreshments. They returned a little way into the second half but Kayleigh was suddenly in a rotten mood, although she wouldn’t let on to me. They spent most of the time having a sotto voce conversation with each other. Kayleigh had a bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets but didn’t seem happy with them, dumping them on the floor after I accepted her offer of one. As a guess, from what little of their conversation I could make out, maybe the food stalls had been out of something Kayleigh really wanted, or perhaps she had given up on getting what she was after because the queue was too long.

I had to leave the two of them to sort things out between them and give my attention to the game. Lina Magull shot wide for Germany. Alessia Russo and Ella Toone came on for Ellen and Fran Kirby. Not long after, Keira Walsh launched the ball upfield, and Ella ran on to it and chipped over the goalie. 1-0 England! Everyone in our section went crazy. Kayleigh, even in her sourpuss mood, and Maria let me hug them. We joined in the singing of ‘It’s Coming Home’ that erupted all round the stadium.

There was a moment of sobriety just after the goal as Beth Mead limped off, Chloe Kelly replacing her. Mary Earps made two more magnificent saves. On and on we sang - It’s Coming Home, En-Ger-Land, England Till I Die - 80% elated, 20% apprehensive. We had one hand on the trophy. Was it really going to happen? Were the Lionesses on the brink of European glory?

Alas, on 79 minutes fate had another card to play. Lina Magull flicked home a cross to equalise. Was the chance now dying? Were we going to be left with broken dreams like 2015, 2017, 2019, our only consolation being having reached the final this time? Would Lioness fever be forgotten in a couple of days?

On we sang, Come on England, Come on England, hoping to rally our ladies into netting a winner. But no goal came, the final whistle arrived, we faced half an hour of extra time.

I remembered Alf Ramsey’s famous pep talk to the England men’s team at the end of regulation time in 1966. “You’ve won it once, now go out there and win it again”. I hoped - trusted - that Sarina was saying something that would have the same effect on the Lionesses. Kayleigh still had the hump, dumping her sweets on the floor again saying “no-one wants them”. I offered to help her eat them; at her invitation I took a generous handful, but that had no beneficial effect on her mood.

The first period of extra time passed without incident.

Oh Jesus, don’t let it go to penalties. Not us and the Germans. Not penalties. Please..

Five minutes into the second period England won a corner. Lauren Hemp took it. Lucy Bronze directed it into Chloe Kelly’s path. Chloe’s first shot was parried but she lashed the rebound into the net.

We all jumped to our feet in an explosion of ecstasy as Chloe whipped her shirt off and raced around celebrating. I yelled “YEEES”. Kayleigh, Maria and I joined in a group hug, we chanted “Let’s all have a disco” and danced around in a little circle. This time, we believed for sure.

England played keep ball in the corners for the rest of the game. The whistle went. The Lionesses had done it.

We stood applauding. The players walked round the pitch, we cheered them to the rafters, Sweet Caroline rang out and we sang it with gusto. I smiled at Kayleigh as she sang the add-ons that she and her friends sing between the lines at karaoke.

We watched the trophy presentation, saw the players running and diving around and making glitter angels. We clapped the last of them off as they disappeared down the tunnel, then still stood in front of our seats, though there was no-one still out on the pitch; we were soaking up the moment, not wanting it to end, singing along with the classic tunes playing over the PA. Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth came on and, taking my cue from the Clapton Community and AFC Portchester versions, I sang along:

Ooh baby, do you know what that’s worth
Sarina Wiegman is the best on earth
She came from Holland to try her luck
She won us the European Cup.

Yes, I know its official title is the European Championship, but that doesn’t scan. And my ditty went down well enough with Kayleigh and Maria. And Kayleigh found a fold-up clacker fan left behind by someone in the row in front, so at least she had one as a souvenir.

We finally left the stadium. “Well, that was fun,” I said to Kayleigh on our way out. As soon as we were outside Kayleigh lit up a fag and we stood around with her. Her mood seemed to lighten from that moment. Maybe her grumpiness was down to nicotine withdrawal. We reflected on the Lionesses having won a major championship, and how we’d said at my leaving do that we’d go to a game together. We hugged and said our goodbyes and they headed for their car.

As I walked around the outside of the stadium looking for Wembley Way, Kath and Angela from the gang came around in the other direction. We hugged, and Angela took a photo of me with Kath. They told me Rachel, Jules and the others were going to Blue Check but said they were getting the train home now as they had work next morning. I replied “I’ve booked tomorrow as holiday” hoping I didn’t sound smug.

After being held at a cordon on Wembley Way for a while to let those in front of the cohort I was standing with disperse, I got back to my hotel room, let my phone charge for a while, dropped off my programme then headed for Blue Check.

On my way there I passed veteran women’s football journo Tony Leighton who complimented me on my long-time support for the Lionesses. “You have a hand on that trophy,” he said.

I entered Blue Check and almost immediately spotted Jules, Alice, Lisa, Rachel, Crystal, Mark, Jill and Steph. They all chanted my name on seeing me and Lisa escorted me to the bar and asked what I was having. I went for a blood orange Rekorderlig. We partied hard into the night, singing every Lionesses song we knew, making up new ones, the liquor flowing freely, raising the roof with cheers every time the goals from the final and England lifting the trophy appeared on TV.

When the bar closed, we all said fond farewells on the pavement outside and wended our separate ways. On the way across Wembley Way to get to my hotel, I saw Wembley Stadium ahead, the message shining bright saying it all.



Yet that wasn’t quite the end. In the foyer of my hotel were Jen and a group of fellow women’s football journalists. Jen too remarked on my years of support for the Lionesses and said “this trophy is for you as much as anyone”. Bless her. We all sat around with drinks, making relaxed chit-chat, until some of us started to flag and we called it a night.