In a season where Tottenham Hotspur have warped traditional perceptions, it is fitting that their most “Angeball” goal may not have come from the Australian’s team.
With their principled and risk-adoring style, Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham have broken the stereotype of Spurs being a fragile outfit that wilt under pressure. However, the new self-confidence was displayed in the highest degree by Robert Vilahamn and his Tottenham Women side in December, when they beat Arsenal 1-0 courtesy of a glorious team goal.
The move began with Barbora Votikova, the Spurs goalkeeper. The ball was shifted forwards incisively but gradually, with Kit Graham dribbling back into her penalty area to lure Arsenal out of position. Ash Neville and Grace Clinton could then exploit the space behind Arsenal’s press, allowing Martha Thomas to attack the back line. After an exchange with Celin Bizet, the striker finished clinically. Simple, gutsy, beautiful — was Vilahamn playing Angeball, or does Ange play Robball?
“It’s the way we want to play — we did it perfectly that day,” Thomas, 27, says of her Swedish head coach’s philosophy. “Nine times out of ten we probably lose the ball or force something but the one time it comes off to a tee, that’s what we want to do. We want to play against teams that want to press, and play out the back.”
Thomas’s famous goal came at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and earned Spurs their first north London derby win in the Women’s Super League (WSL). It was an early sign that Tottenham were being transformed under Vilahamn who, like Postecoglou, joined last summer.
Advertisement
The latest sign will come this Sunday, when Vilahamn’s team return to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the club’s first Women’s FA Cup semi-final, against Leicester City. For Thomas, the venue choice illustrates overdue progress.
“The backing we’re getting here and the one-club mentality has been huge,” she says. “That’s the direction women’s football deserves and it’s nice to be a part of a club doing that.
“Women’s football is moving up and going back to what it was before the FA banned women from playing football [from 1921 to 1970]. That’s just the truth.
“The WSL attendance is the highest it has been. The biggest reason for that is we’re having the capacity for fans.”
Thomas willingly speaks about the broader issues in women’s football, including widespread anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and a cramped schedule. She believes insufficient education left her “ignorant” to injury-prevention methods when she tore an ACL in 2017 and highlights flaws in the women’s calendar — particularly the two Euro 2025 qualifiers in July.
Advertisement
• Beth Mead: Hectic schedule a big factor in rise of ACL injuries
“Even in the men’s game they are talking about scheduling so it is a football-wide issue,” the Scotland international says. “But we’ve got smaller squads and fewer resources, so it is hard for female footballers. We can’t quite pop off on our private jets with a group of physios.”
Thomas’s ACL injury, sustained while playing US college soccer for the Charlotte 49ers, prevented her from entering the 2018 National Women’s Soccer League Draft. She instead returned to Europe and had a year at Le Havre before two unspectacular seasons at each of West Ham United and Manchester United.
Yet, after signing for Tottenham last September, Thomas scored six goals in her first four WSL matches, achieving her highest tally for an English league season by October 21. Though less prolific since, she can fall back on an environment that was perhaps lacking at previous employers.
“It was all I could have dreamt of,” Thomas says of her amazing start to this season. “It just speaks volumes of when you’re comfortable, and when I feel valued and I’m confident I know I can deliver. That’s exactly what happened here.
Advertisement
“It just felt right from the beginning. The way that Robert wants to play really suited me.”
Women’s FA Cup semi-final
Tottenham v Leicester City
Sunday, midday
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
TV: BBC2
