Battling relegation can feel suffocating – but it made me a better person

We talk a lot about pressure at the top of a league but the stress involved at the bottom is on a different scale entirely.

It’s something I learned after joining Aston Villa in the summer of 2020. Villa were newly promoted to the Women’s Super League and, at the age of 35, I had just left Chelsea after two seasons interrupted first by a serious knee injury I sustained playing for England and then the Covid-19 pandemic.

I’d been lucky enough to play for some leading clubs in different countries but I didn’t really know what being in a relegation battle felt like. I soon discovered it is suffocating. As a senior professional you’re concerned about your own performances but also feel responsible for the futures of not only your teammates but the club’s off-field staff who often face redundancy if you go down.

When, thanks to a 0-0 draw at Arsenal, Villa ensured survival on the final day of the season the sense of relief was immense. It is a feeling I’ll never forget. With hindsight I realise everything we went through made me a better person and is helping me now in my job as a coach at Bristol City but, at the time, it was tough.

As we enter the final two months of this season with no side in the bottom half of the WSL free of relegation worries it is perhaps a good moment to reflect on the really difficult moments that – to varying extents – players at Leicester, Brighton, Reading, Tottenham, Liverpool and West Ham will be experiencing. The only consolation this season is that at least the clubs involved don’t have to contend with Covid-related restrictions.

Team bonding is so important but, at Villa in 2020-21, the rules meant we couldn’t have normal interactions in training or socialise with each other. We also had to