Ashleigh Neville: “This won’t define us”

Standing on the pitch at Wembley Stadium after competing in our first-ever Women’s FA Cup Final, Ashleigh Neville took the opportunity to reflect on the journey the Club has been.

Our historic run in the FA Cup didn’t manage to have a special ending as we fell to a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United, Ella Toone putting them ahead on the stroke of half time with a fantastic strike before Rachel Williams and a brace from Lucia Garcia secured the trophy for Marc Skinner’s side.

Although we fell just short of lifting our first FA Cup, the occasion at the national stadium represented the growth of the Club in the last five years and Ashleigh, who is our longest-serving player, has been at the heart of it over her seven seasons.

“We are disappointed to have lost the game, but I’m so proud of the girls that we have got here, everyone in that team deserves to be here,” Ashleigh told The Review Show.

“We are sad that we didn’t go onto win the game but, I think, we will look back at how far we have come.

“The girls have worked so hard and when you look at our journey to this moment, we have come back game after game to prove we are good enough and this won’t define us.

“This time last year, we were in a relegation battle and, now, we are playing in the FA Cup final, it’s a game we will look back at, where we went wrong and where we can improve, and learn from the experience.”

The defender also went onto praise our supporters in attendance at Wembley Stadium, with over 76,000 in attendance, including a strong contingent of Lilywhite who were making plenty of noise throughout the game.

“It was incredible and we just want to say thank you to all the supporters and, hopefully, you can be there for the last two games to see the season through,” our number 29 added.

“We are just building, this is our first season with Robert [Vilahamn] in charge and the team have so much potential, so stick with us and we will get there.”

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