The Manchester United defender Amy Turner is not used to winning. “For most of us this is a new experience, winning something. Picking up the title two games before the end gives us a chance to enjoy it,” she says about the team’s Championship-winning season less than a year after 26 strangers were brought together with promotion at the top of the agenda.
“We had effectively four and a half weeks to do our entire recruitment process and that includes putting the staff and infrastructure in place,” says the manager, Casey Stoney. “One of the biggest jobs was ensuring the players gel so we’ve done an awful lot of work away from the football pitch, out of our comfort zones, working on different aspects of team work, challenging ourselves and getting to know each other so they’re not strangers on that football pitch.”
Stoney describes this as “the most together group” she has worked with and, for Turner, a critical part of their “team United” bonding activities was when they had to voice their faults. “I think the hardest thing for a lot of us was admitting our weaknesses and what we need to work on,” she says.
“We had that discussion quite early on in the season and everyone was honest. Sometimes admitting your weaknesses to each other brings you a long way, especially on the pitch because you’re thinking: ‘She needs help with this’ and: ‘I’m going to have her back.’ It’s a key reason why we’ve done as well as we have this year.”
Being part of a winning team may be a new experience for Turner, but so is just being part of a side who dominate possession. “It’s definitely different for me,” says the 27-year-old who played for Doncaster, Leeds, Sheffield, Notts County and Liverpool before joining United. “I’ve been in teams that don’t have much possession and defend for their lives every game, so that was what I was used to. I think because I’ve seen so much more of the ball, that side of my game has really improved. Then when we’ve played against better opposition I still have that fight in me.”
Turner is one of the more experienced heads in the squad and has been a stalwart in a back four that has conceded only seven league goals all season. But she was not expecting to feature as much as she has, having suffered the collapse of Notts County and an injury-hit spell at Liverpool.
“When I signed for United I knew this year was going to have to be a good one for me on a personal level,” she says. “I had been out of the game for a lot longer than I would have liked.”
In front of a experienced backline – mostly players Stoney played alongside at Liverpool – is a young, dynamic midfield and forward line, and picking a standout player is hard. “We haven’t got the budget people say we have,” Stoney says. “And half of our squad haven’t played WSL football. People forget that.
“I look at the amount of goals that have come from our midfield this season, Katie Zelem, Mollie Green, Ella Toone, Lauren James, you look and think they are all going to develop more and it’s hard to tell who is going to have a breakthrough next because they’ve all done so well.”
There is a game, though, that was a highlight and the closest her side have come to a complete performance. “The Everton game [in the Continental Tyres Cup] before Christmas,” Stoney says. “Because it came off the back of our first defeat. We needed that defeat, we needed it to know how to adapt, fight and play a slightly different way.
“To go against Everton, to play the way we did, to be 3-0 up before half-time … it was a really strong performance from us and a catalyst, it told the players they could really compete.”
On the flipside, both Stoney and Turner point to their 3-2 FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Reading as the biggest learning curve. “I think game management has been the biggest lesson,” explains Turner. “We had taken the lead on two occasions and conceded quite soon after that. That will be a big lesson for next season: being able to see games out. Reading are a very experienced side and they bettered us on the game management side.” Stoney describes it as recognising how “vulnerable” they can be after they score.
Now, though, Stoney can focus her attentions on next season and the top tier. And with two games left she can give minutes to those who have not featured as much.
The 36-year-old has already started identifying players, a process she began last December when “quietly confident” she had a squad who could win her promotion.
Does she worry about new players interrupting the dynamic of the history makers? “Obviously I always worry about players I release because I care about them as people and I want them to go on and be successful, but it’s a part of football and we have to evolve. We have to add a little bit of experience to our squad and a little bit more quality to be able to compete at the top level. And we’ll make sure we go through the same integration processes we did this season.”
Turner adds: “Everybody who has played a part this year won’t be forgotten. We all expect that if we want to compete next season, we will have to evolve and get better. We just want to be successful.”
What is the target for next season? “I wouldn’t put a marker on it, I don’t think it’s right to do that,” says Stoney. “We need to be consistent in the league and competitive. It’s OK to get geared up for one-off games like we have this season but to do it relentlessly three games in a week all season?
“We need to make sure we maintain what we’ve built, we don’t change our philosophy and we build on what we’ve done this season.”
