Inside the Northenden coffee shop owned by Lioness legend attracting fans from 6,000 miles away

Sleek interiors, a strong smell of coffee, warm welcome, and a hand painted portrait of Jill Scott: this is what to expect if you visit Boxx2Boxx coffee shop.

The cafe, on Palatine Road in Northenden, is popular with footballers, with a nook dedicated to photos of the famous faces who have popped in for a coffee. But, perhaps, another reason people visit Boxx2Boxx is to happen upon England Lioness and Manchester City player Jill Scott.

Jill Scott, and her partner Shelly Unitt, have owned Boxx2Boxx coffee shop since 2021, named for Jill's infamous role as a box-to-box midfielder, hosts a range of events from Wednesday walks to board game nights. Boxx2Boxx is a true piece of Northenden’s community.

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Shelly returned to the coffee shop, following the Lioness’ Euros win at Wembley, and spoke to the MEN about how the Euros had affected business. She said: “Since the Euros have been on, obviously it’s very busy anyway if I’m being totally honest, but then when Jill is in the shop, it just goes completely manic, wild. Everyone wants to come down and chat and Jill’s got a lot of time for everybody.

“I feel like everybody pulls together and comes in. Jill will come in once or twice a week, dependent on training and her availability, really.

“On the Euros, for the day that it kicked off, it went ballistic. We had to have like five staff in, there were queues out the door, everyone was just coming in, from all over the country though.

“We even had someone from Hong Kong, they said that they’d literally come from London to Manchester and came into the shop. Australia too, and it was just for a meeting hopefully. There’s a corner of football,