Humility, they say, is one of the most sought-after compliments for a young footballer. A substantiating harbinger of those all-important bigger and better things to come.
Even so, for an 18-year-old leading the goal-scoring metrics in all competitions for the women’s domestic top flight in Wales (and by no meagre distance), Phoebie Poole is aggressively modest.
Donning a Cardiff City Women’s hoodie over FaceTime, the striker cannot stop apologising for her marginal tardiness (she is five minutes late, having totally forgotten about the interview due to her helping her mum reshuffle the garage to make way for her sister).
When told, not long after the apologies finally subside, the interview will begin with some rudimentary questions about how she and football came to be, a fearful-sounding “oh my” topples out of her mouth.
The slip is almost an act of betrayal. Almost. For all the things that Poole continues to belie – her age, her league, her incidental demeanour as she insists she can't remember her first goal or first win but “just enjoyed football since... forever” – it is difficult for her to belie just how instinctively football ostensibly comes to her.
Once again, the Wales youth international grabbed headlines recently, with her dramatic 97th-minute equaliser against Swansea City Ladies at the end of February. The goal marked Poole’s 13th league goal this season, seeing her go joint-top with Swansea’s Stacey John-Davis. It also marked the second time Poole delivered a late leveller against the reigning league champions.
The episode was almost predictable, if not a cruel dose of deja vu. Poole "loves a goal against the Swans", particularly now as Cardiff's bid to become the nouveau footballing juggernaut upturning the usual status quo of Wales' domestic game feels wholly inevitable. Poole's goal ensured Cardiff's pristine record of 22 matches unbeaten (now 23) remains in mint condition, as well as their hunt for a historic Adran Premier treble and an elusive first league title in a decade.
Poole celebrated with a roaring Ayatollah (“it was pure instinct, I think every Bluebird would say if they have to celebrate against Swansea, you do that”), before following up the on-pitch celebrations with some playful Twitter trash talking to Swansea’s Chloe Chivers, who queried the veracity of the seven added minutes. Poole lets out a loud laugh when asked about the tweet (the striker fired back at Chivers’ typed umbrage by questioning the time-wasting).
“I hope she took it as banter,” Poole says. “I never mean anything mean on Twitter, just banter. I don’t think it was embarrassing, honestly. Maybe she should’ve gotten the balls ready and the seven minutes wouldn’t have come along. But we celebrated a draw because they haven’t beaten us this season at all, which is incredible.”
Poole pauses and laughs again. “I’m too competitive for this game, honestly.”
The admission is two-fold. On a personal level, it offers a glimpse into Poole on the pitch, the one unshackled from modesty, whose football career began innocuously with a local Cyncoed boys' team but has since seen her gobble up goals like some insatiable glutton and earmark her for a genuine crack at the Wales senior squad this year. On a holistic level, however, it underlines the mentality which has consumed Cardiff City Women this season.
Rhianne Oakley, who swapped reigning league champions Swansea for Cardiff this season in search of game time and has found, in return, the best form of her career, said: “I played against Cardiff last season and I thought they improved loads, but once they got over that mental block, they knew they could perform against the best teams, against big-name clubs."
For Oakley, Cardiff are tempo setters. With three training sessions per week, full-time coaching staff, a seamless alchemy of youth and veteran players and an emphasis on self-expression within a structured philosophy, the standards for success have been rewired. The team are aware they are in a privileged position, backed by a club who can afford to subsidise their new foundations and push the league’s boundaries.
But they insist, with equal earnestness, the intangibles are as critical in mining the degree of success they’ve achieved this season as the tangibles.
“You can see by the stats that we’ve had an amazing season so far," Oakley says. "We’ve been winning games, putting in performances, but even games when we’ve been 1-0 down at half-time, we’re still showing that desire and that drive to come through the other end. As a team we work so hard behind the scenes on and off the pitch so I just think for the girls and the coaches we deserve to get something out of this season.”
That something, according to both Oakley and Poole, is the treble, the only appropriate demarcation line for the side’s performances to date. A date with Cardiff Met in the Adran Trophy final on Sunday, March 12, represents the first step in doing achieving a treble.
It is a tantalising prospect against a familiar foe, not least one who got the better of Cardiff City last year in the Adran Trophy final courtesy of Emily Allen's dramatic late winner and Poole's missed injury-time penalty.
This year, though, Poole and Cardiff City have cut themselves a very different beast and revenge looks well on the cards. They offered Met a friendly reminder of exactly that during the FAW Women’s Cup semi-final during the international break, under which contentious circumstances saw the Bluebirds play without six players (four from the usual starting XI, including Poole) due to international call-ups.
That Cardiff’s ranks brim with so many youth internationals is testament to the club’s burgeoning academy system, a fact Oakley insists the league and the country should take note of.
Yet, as noise was made outside the club about the perceived sense of injustice at being forced to play without so many key players, the Cardiff squad opted against joining in. The decision proved apt. Oakley’s brace went unanswered by Met and fired Cardiff into the FAW Women’s Cup final set against Adran South Division’s Briton Ferry Llansawel.
“[The decision not to postpone] was brought up as a club, but everyone was like, 'that’s it, it’s done',” Oakley recalls. “There’s nothing we can do about it, we just need to focus on the players that we have and the game Sunday because it’s not going to change. We thought, as a team, we need to prove that even with six players missing we’re still the level up.”
"We wanted to let the football talk," Poole adds.
Welcoming the six back for this Sunday is a welcome reprieve, not least for Poole, who has her eye on scoring as many goals as possible before the end of the season.
But the ultimate goal invariably remains the treble, a prize which Oakley and Poole unabashedly describe as merited given the team's unwavering tenacity on and off the pitch this season.
Poole recalls during pre-season when head coach Ian Darbyshire showed a Powerpoint to the squad, where the season’s standards and targets were laid out against an impressive backdrop of Cardiff City badges and cartoon bluebirds. The team have been in lockstep since.
“We’ve hit every single goal,” Poole says. “We’ve done a new one now and we’re just continuously setting the bar and pushing ourselves to the limit. And we’re all very good at that, we’ve got really good motivators in the team. So we’ll keep doing so.”
If the treble does come off, there is talk of commemorative tattoos, though Poole, true to character, sheepishly admits she will refrain from that element of celebration. Besides, she points out, the Adran Trophy must be won first.
- Cardiff Met FC Women v Cardiff City Women kicks off at 2pm on Sunday, March 12, at the SDM Glass Stadium (Bryntirion Park, home of Penybont FC) in Bridgend.
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