Next, we caught up with forward Sarah Wiltshire as she spoke joining the Club she supported when growing up, balancing football and parenthood and enjoying success at Stevenage now…
Just talk to us about your journey in football before joining Spurs and how the move to the Club came about?
“I started off at Arsenal’s Centre of Excellence and then moved to Watford when I was 17 years old to play senior football for the first time. From then, I had a season at Yeovil Town before going full-time with Manchester City. I decided to move back to Yeovil where we got promoted to the Women’s Super League at the time and then I had my daughter. After she was born, I needed to play nearer and that’s how the move to Spurs came about.”
Talk to us about your time at the Club, especially wearing the Lilywhite shirt having supported the Club when growing up?
“Obviously being a Spurs fan when I was growing up, I loved getting to play for the Club and enjoyed my two seasons there. My dad got me my first Spurs shirt on my seventh birthday which had the number seven and Wiltshire on the back, so it was special to then wear that week in, week out. We had a really good team at the time to then getting promoted to the Women’s Super League, being part of the first squad to have achieved that, was absolutely brilliant.”
As you mentioned above, you became a mother just before you joined Spurs - how special was that?
“Playing for Spurs was a completely new chapter for me as I become a mum for the first time. I had to juggle things differently as we trained three times a week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – and all in the evenings plus I worked part-time while I had a baby so everything was full on. However, I loved it and she now enjoys playing too.”
Since your time at the Club, talk to us about what you have been up to?
“I have continued to play football. Since my time at Spurs, I have gone to play for Watford again before joining Cambridge United. I’m now at Stevenage where we have just done the double this season, securing promotion to the FA Women’s National League after winning the Eastern Region Women’s Football League and also lifting the Hertfordshire County Cup. In between playing for those, I also had two boys, so am now a mum of three.”
How much have you seen women’s football grow since you first started and throughout the leagues?
“The growth has been amazing to see. You can see that every year with the standards of the Women’s football tiers now and it has been great to witness first hand. There’s so much more opportunity for girls now than when I was younger, so that’s really good to see and hopefully we can continue to see it progress even further.”