“There’s only one Jess Durr” reads the colourful sign that’s held aloft as Tranmere Rovers kick off against Burnley in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.
The sign has been carefully crafted by nine-year-old Lily, who plays at centre-back for Vauxhaull Motors FC. It’s little wonder, then, that Tranmere defender Durr is among her footballing idols.
Lily and her Vauxhall teammate, Evelyn, are both “football mad” and decided to make the trip to Ellesmere Port Sports Village after watching Tranmere put seven past Alder FC at Prenton Park earlier in the season. Today is a tougher test up against sterner opposition, with the Clarets riding high in the Women’s National League, two divisions above Tranmere.
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Burnley make their mark on the tie inside the first minute; Courtney Willis’ low drive rifling past Katy Maddock in the Tranmere goal to give the visitors an early lead. It’s the start of a long afternoon for Tranmere, with Burnley posing a threat every time they foray forward.
By the break, the Clarets are 6-0 up, but that doesn’t seem to bother Lily and Evelyn who are still proudly holding their signs in the air.
“I started off taking her to gymnastics because I didn’t even really think of football as something girls did,” Evelyn’s mum tells the ECHO as she watches on with a smile. “I took her to a Weetabix Wildcats football session one day and she ended up quitting gymnastics because she just loved it.
"It’s amazing to see how much the women’s game is growing because now the girls can look up and see something that’s attainable for them.”
As the two sides make their way out for the second half, Mark Unsworth, whose daughter, Rachel, plays in the middle of the park for Tranmere sighs and says: “I think this is going to be an arm around the shoulder type of day.”
Mark started ferrying Rachel around to matches and training sessions when she was eight years old, so it’s a proud moment to see her stepping out onto the pitch in the FA Cup. It’s a similar story for Brian Nugent, whose daughter Kiah, is a regular fixture at the heart of the Tranmere defence.
“We follow them home and away in all weathers," Brian says. “Sometimes there’ll only be half a dozen people here and you’ll have to wring your coat out at the end because it’s that wet but we keep coming. It’s nice that they’ve managed to get to this stage of this competition and there’s a decent crowd that’s turned out for them.”
The tapestry of Tranmere’s squad is woven of women from a vast array of different backgrounds. Goalkeeper Maddock played alongside the likes of Alex Greenwood and Nikita Parris in Everton’s centre of excellence as well as representing Wales at youth level. Captain Lindsey Smith works as a fitness instructor for Wirral Borough Council while midfielder Rachel Davidson is a firefighter, who only clocked off her night shift a few hours before kick-off.
Burnley add to their tally in the second half, with goals from Sarah Greenhalgh, Aimee Kelly and Leah Embley securing a 9-0 victory for the visitors. It’s a disappointing result for Tranmere, but one that manager Sam Irvine believes his side can learn a lot from.
“I think you can see the difference in the quality of the opposition. They were an outstanding outfit and I think that was difficult for us to cope with today,” he says. “It wasn’t through lack of trying, we got stuck in but we were up against a side who were a few notches ahead of us unfortunately.”
“With the prize money going up, we’ve managed to bag a decent amount of money with our cup run and, at the level we’re at, that will really help us going forward. It was almost a free hit for us today so it won’t define our season going forward.
"We’re aspiring to go up a few levels ourselves and, if that’s what we’re looking to do, we’ve been shown today what we need to do to get there so it’s been a good learning curve for us all.”
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