England striker Eniola Aluko put her Women’s World Cup disappointments behind her last weekend to help her club side Chelsea win their first major trophy with a Player of the Match performance.
Eniola, who would have been disappointed to lose her place as starting centre forward after two games during England’s most successful FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign ever, provided the assist for the winning goal in Chelsea’s 1-0 Women’s FA Cup win over Notts County on Saturday.
Eniola was happy to be part of England’s history-making campaign in Canada, but she was inconsolable last season when Chelsea, with the Women’s Super League title in their grasp, lost out on the final day of the season after a tame and nervous defeat.
After Saturday’s win, the law graduate and Chelsea number 9 was quick to express her feelings.
“The overwhelming emotion right now is just relief,” Aluko told BBC Sport. “It has been a long time coming.
“After coming so close last season [to the WSL 1 title] everyone has talked about it, will Chelsea do it? How will we play under pressure? But we certainly played under pressure.
“We were disciplined and got the win. This is history in the making I couldn’t be more proud of this group of players.”
Saturday’s match was the first Women’s FA Cup final to be played at Wembley. The 30,000 crowd were not, it has to be said, served up the kind of spectacle many of them feasted upon during the World Cup; but it was Aluko who provided much of what excitement there was with her superior pace.
Along with Gemma Davidson on the right, Aluko repeatedly got beyond the Notts County defensive line but the twin threats found nobody able to latch onto their probing crosses. Indeed the two combined for one of the best chances of the game when an Aluko cross from the left found Davidson sliding in at the far post. Davidsons attempt somehow went agonisingly back across the goal to safety.
Minutes later, a ball won in midfield found Aluko, who strode into the Notts County penalty area before cleverly switching the ball to her preferred right foot and poking the ball into the path of South Korean international Ji So-yun, whose initial shot was repelled before she was quickest to react to the loose ball and prodded it into an empty net.
After the interval, as the East Midlanders began to push more players forward in search of an equaliser, there was space for Chelsea to exploit on the break. Following a pacey run down the right, Aluko saw her low drive across goal parried to safety by Telford – the second time in the match the Notts County ‘keeper had repelled a goal-bound effort from the Nigeria-born striker.
Chelsea had another chance to extend their lead soon after when Gilly Flaherty was found inside the box from Aluko’s deft flick, but with little time to react, she could only turn the ball over the bar from a couple of yards out.
A slight injury picked up during a raid on the Notts County defence saw Aluko withdrawn late on in favour of Portuguese winger Ana Borges, who immediately made her intentions clear by pressing when appropriate and heading straight to the corner flag when not. Her freshness and the guile of Davidson, who had by now switched to the left flank, frustrated the opposition, and the expected desperate bombardment of the Chelsea penalty area in the closing stages never really materialised.
Nominated Player of the Match by BBC pundit Sue Smith, Eni Aluko was visibly moved by being part of Chelsea’s first real success when she was interviewed after the game. But now it is back to the bread and butter business of the Women’s Super League – a competition over which Chelsea have lost their grip following two successive defeats and one which, last year, was so identified by Aluko’s disconsolate image.
A point behind leaders Sunderland and with the Women’s FA Cup safely in the trophy cabinet, Aluko and her teammates will be hoping they can get back on track and secure the title that so cruelly eluded them last season.
