As football stories go, the tale of Tottenham Hotspur Women is one worthy of a Hollywood script and it's now the subject of a new documentary.
'Broxbourne & Beyond' is an hour-long documentary following the dual paths of the past and present of the women's team from their creation on muddy local pitches and the current squad managed by Rehanne Skinner in the Barclay's Women's Super League, going behind the scenes as they reach uncharted territory at the top of the game.
Here are five things we learned from the well put together documentary on SpursPlay.
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An incredible journey and the five founders
When you look at the established women's teams of today and see Tottenham battling against them, it's important to have a reality check and realise exactly where the team has come from and in such a rapid amount of time.
The documentary reminds us that to begin with they were Broxbourne Ladies, co-founded in 1985 by friends Kay Lovelock and Sue Sharples. The duo were looking for somewhere for girls to play football locally and frustrated in their efforts, they decided to set up their own club. They still had to find somewhere they could play and train and started off simply with a bag of shirts and a couple of balls.
Glenn Weaver came on board and became a driving force as the team played in the local regional leagues, and he eventually came knocking on the door of Spurs' board member Donna-Maria Cullen in an attempt to forge a link with Tottenham. In 1991 they got the permission to use Tottenham Hotspur Ladies as their name, a reserve team was also formed, and when Glenn, who became chairman in 2000, later passed away, his sister Valerie and June Clarke, one of the player's parents, carried on his legacy.
The team had got out of the Greater London League and Karen Hills came on board to coach the side and was joined by Juan Carlos Amoros a year later in a joint management team. Such was their humble beginnings even then, Karen would drive the mini-bus to get the team to matches.
As the team rapidly pushed up the leagues, winning trophies aplenty, they asked for more money from the club and soon a tough decision had to be made.
In the documentary you can see the hurt but acceptance for Valerie and June when Spurs reached the verge of the Women's Super League and the club moved to bring the team fully in-house and develop the structure, keeping the two founders involved on an advisory board after the remarkable job they had done but taking over to bring it up to the professional criteria required for the new league.
"I remember saying to Val at the time 'as much as I hate it, it's the right thing to do. We need to hand it over to the club because they've got the structures in place to take it to the next level'", said Clarke.
Where Spurs are now is testament to the remarkable work put in by the five volunteers who drove them from their early beginnings.
Playing at White Hart Lane and Pochettino watching training
A key step along the team's journey was their landmark game at the club's old home in April 2017, taking to the pitch in White Hart Lane's final season.
It was something special for a group of then part-time players and they knew something was up when Hills wouldn't let them in the home changing room at first. They walked in to find their names on the back of their shirts, something they had never experienced in the game's lower leagues.
Spurs had not lost all season and they put on a great show that evening for the fans, lifting the southern section Premier League Trophy before going on to play northern champions Blackburn to become the FA Women's Premier League Championship Play-Off winners with a dominant performance.
That took them into the Championship and the team became semi-professionals, beginning to train at Hotspur Way. The documentary shows Mauricio Pochettino and Jesus Perez coming over to the indoor area to watch them training during one session.
Those days marked the next chapter of the club as they became more professional and led to the wild celebrations two years later as we see Spurs become a Women's Super League team. It was eventually earned with a nailbiting 1-1 draw against Aston Villa to get the point they needed. The final minutes of desperate defending with goal line clearances and saves took them to promotion, sparking joy on the pitch and in the dugout as they got out of the Championship in just two seasons.
The constant Jenna Schillaci
When it comes to Tottenham Hotspur Women's club legends, look no further than Jenna Schillaci, who pops up throughout the documentary.
The defender turned up as a 16-year-old to a training session and after a couple of early seasons away would go on to spend 12 seasons at the club and as captain became the figurehead of its remarkable rise up the divisions.
Schillaci was captain for three promotion-winning campaigns and signed her first full-time professional contract ahead of the club's debut campaign in the Women's Super League, leading the team out against Chelsea in front of 24,564 fans at Stamford Bridge for their historic opening game in the top flight in September 2019.
She even managed to write her name in the club's history again in what proved to be her last game for the club, captaining the side and registering a clean sheet as Spurs reached the quarter-finals of the Women’s FA Cup for the first time, seeing off Coventry United 5-0.
The documentary shows just how committed she was to Spurs' rise, her saying at one point: "I really struggled with some players whose hearts weren't really in it and they would pop in and out. It really wound me up, because I was 100% and a lot of my team-mates were 100%.
Schillaci retired in the summer of 2020 and is now not only a recognisable face as a pundit in the game but has also remained within Spurs as the women's academy operations manager, developing the girls who will become the club's future.
Rehanne Skinner is serious about Spurs
There are two sides of Rehanne Skinner on display during the documentary. In front of the camera during interviews, the Tottenham head coach comes across as a very serious person and you can imagine her players will not want to disappoint her.
"We firmly look at ways in which we can have accountability, ownership and responsibility across the staff and the players," she declares at one point.
Yet when the camera fades into the background and Skinner is shown working with her team on the Hotspur Way training pitches or in the tactical meetings you see her softer side at the fore and the clear bond she has created with the players.
All the best coaches in the game know how to tread the balance between leader and listener and Skinner has drummed a belief into a squad that was in a relegation battle when she joined.
She took over from two enormously popular long-serving coaches in Hills and Amoros who had driven Spurs up the leagues, yet she managed that transition with ease and used their work as the foundation for her new-look Tottenham, building an established Super League team despite being such relative newcomers.
A big season and high hopes
If anything showcased the incredible rise the club has worked for it was that 2-1 victory away against Manchester City in September last year.
One of the Women's Super League's most established sides was beaten at home by a relative newcomer to professional football. That there was disappointment with 1-1 draws at the Hive against Manchester United and Arsenal also summed up that journey.
The documentary takes you behind the scenes with the squad during last season and you get to know players like Ashleigh Neville, Ria Percival, Jessica Naz and captain Shelina Zadorksy, who won gold at the Olympics with Canada last year, away from the pitch as well as on it.
You get a sense of the team's growth before seeing them secure a fifth-place finish at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the highest position the club has ever achieved in its history and leaving them with Champions League dreams for the seasons ahead.
This current campaign has brought a couple of early stumbles but there's plenty of positive around the camp. It's been a meteoric rise for Tottenham Hotspur Women yet you get the feeling they're just getting started.
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