A blog of two halves

Chelsea Ladies are champions too

In all the ballyhoo and euphoria about Tony Conte’s Blues winning the league in his first season, Chelsea Ladies risk being overlooked.

7 June 2017
By Tim Harrison
Categories:
Chelsea FC

In all the ballyhoo and euphoria about Tony Conte's Blues winning the league in his first season, Chelsea Ladies risk being overlooked… but they have been popping the bubbly too.

It came down to the wire, but the women's team clinched the Super League's spring series on the final day with an away victory at Birmingham, pipping Manchester City thanks to eye-wateringly impressive goal difference.

It means that as Chelsea Ladies prepare to move to their new permanent home in Kingston, and say goodbye to their temporary quarters in Staines, they will begin the next chapter as champions.

So what can future generations of fans look forward to as the team settle in at Kingsmeadow – former home of Kingstonian?

The answer would seem to be goals, goals, goals!

Manager Emma Hayes' girls finished with an 18-goal superiority to City, yet the coach wanted to emphasise the clean sheet and pay tribute to a goalkeeper, backs and midfielders who have been a consistent and impressive unit.

"I wish people would focus more on our defensive record; we've been tough to beat and hard to break down," she said.

Seven different players were on the scoresheet, among them the Blues' South Korean markswoman Ji So-Yun (right)

The ladies have mirrored Chelsea's first team by winning the league but losing in the FA Cup, underlining their longer-term stamina and resilience.

Goals by Fran Kirby and Karen Carney clinched the spring league title for Chelsea Ladies as the men's and ladies' seasons now synchronise.

More eye-catching than the win at Birmingham was a 7-0 drubbing of Liverpool a week earlier as captain Katie Chapman led the team in the last game at Wheatsheaf Park, Staines, ahead of the stadium switch.

Seven different players were on the scoresheet, among them the Blues' South Korean markswoman Ji So-Yun.

Meanwhile Eden Hazard's ankle fracture, sustained while training with the Belgian team, means he won't be fit for Chelsea selection until a month into next season.

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Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

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