Birmingham City Women goalkeeper and ex-Cheltenham Town keeper, Poppy Irvine reveals how crucial her loan spell at the Robins was to her career.
“I absolutely loved my time at Cheltenham, the experience is what I needed, but being around the girls and the staff that was really nice as well, it does completely changed how you look at football.
“Being there has helped me get an understanding of women’s football because it’s so different, tier three football compared to academy football and first team football. It really helped me.”
Cheltenham Town Women finished in 8th place, one point ahead of Hashtag United and two points ahead of Gwalia United who were relegated.
Irvine started eight of the Robins’ 22 league games this season before returning to her parent club of Birmingham City who won the WSL2.
The Blues won the title on the final day of the WSL2 season in dramatic fashion after a 0-2 win over title challengers Charlton Athletic.
“It feels a bit weird at the moment, obviously because I’ve been at Blues for three seasons now and we were so close to getting promoted last year and I was part of that as well.
“The difference this year, it felt different, the spirits were higher, we were a lot more calm and obviously they’ve got where they needed to get and it’s been in the making for ages.”
