Second year Criminology student Ella Hayward-Crosweller has dusted off her gloves and is ready to re-enter the fray of football after a year and a half out injured, but how did she get here?
Ella started her career at The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid, being there for eight seasons starting from the under 12 age.
Hayward-Crosweller found a plethora of success at the club and also went on to play for Powys County, which brings us to now.
On how the journey started, Ella had this to say:
“It was my first match in goal I think it was under 14s this time we were playing Shrewsbury Town.
“I was late, the sat-nav had taken me and dad the wrong way and for some reason the team had no goalkeeper. I don’t know what happened to the goalkeeper. I arrived late and the coach looks at me and went ‘Because your late’ and threw me a pair of gloves.
“I had never played in goal, I was mostly a defender, to be fair I used to play striker when I was younger, but defence was my thing. I went in net for the full match and made some incredible saves. From that moment on I’ve been a goalkeeper ever since, that was about eight years ago now. I’ll forever remember Josh Pierce was his name, forever. Remember him, he made me the goalkeeper on this day.”
Reminiscing on her previous achievements, Hayward-Crosweller focused on a pivotal moment in a cup final:
“There was this one, say about four years ago now maybe, cup final, we were cup final and league winners this year and I saved a penalty and then the rebound, I was just standing up holding the ball, looking around seeing everyone on their feet for me.
“It just felt powerful in that moment standing up with the ball in your hands and realising what you’ve just done, your team’s just looking at you like you just saved them as well. It was amazing.”
Out of all those spectators in the crowd, all the support on her journey, there was only one face Hayward-Crosweller focused on, her biggest fan, the catalyst of her career, her dad:
“Yeah, my biggest inspiration when it comes to football was him.
“He’s always been my biggest supporter when it comes to football and when I quit, well got injured or whatever you want to call it, a year and a half ago, He was devastated.
“So getting back into it and just ringing him on the phone the other week and telling him that I’m back, I got straight back into the first team, and that I’ve been given a sports scholarship and all this good news regarding my football, I’ve seen such a change in him already and we have something to bond over again if that makes sense, I can ring him after matches and yeah he’s just my biggest support really.”
Starting a new club comes with a great amount of responsibility, the keeper claims it’s all ‘weighing over her a little’, and comments on just how important mental health is in football and day-to-day life:
“Coming from someone that’s a very big advocate for mental health, this is one of the main reasons why I have chosen to go back and play football, because I feel like being part of that sort of environment is so important, you don’t know what people are going through.
“I’ve known these girls for three weeks, I don’t know their family life. They, for all I know, could be struggling behind closed doors and for them to show up to training and put on a happy face and have a laugh and a joke with a group of like-minded and different girls does anyone an incredible amount of good.
“To have a big group of girls who are all united by football and the passion to play is amazing and what it does for people’s mental health is so good, especially when you build the friendships there and football becomes more than just football.
“In terms of mental health, playing football is something that a lot of people use as a coping mechanism. I know a lot of other unhealthy coping mechanisms out there so I feel like getting into a sport or even just a team. We have people that don’t even have to play they just want to come and be part of the social side of it.
“Which I think is great because some people might not have the confidence to get on a pitch and play as much as they wanted to but they still have that option to be included, which is more important than anything else, inclusion.”
Inclusion is something that has improved in recent times within the contrast between women’s and men’s football and as someone who has experienced the change from a young age, Hayward-Crosweller commented:
“So The New Saints, I did eight seasons of from under 12s, and I’m 20 this year! A long time ago now when you think about it.
“Obviously because I was at TNS for so long. I saw it change throughout the season, you hear that the men’s side of football does seem to take the front seat compared to women’s football, so at the time when I first joined, it was mainly focused on the men and I know that the men’s side have to pay a lot of money to play.
“Two seasons in they start to focus more on the women’s football. I think one season I had to pay around 300 pounds to play and it did get quite professional.
“There still is a long way to go especially within youth football. Creating a bigger pathway for women’s football is so important because when I was in school I had that pathway, but I had to go out and find it.
“I went to school in Wales. It was very dominated by rugby, but it was also dominated by the male football. Why couldn’t the girls go off and play football sort of thing? I feel like schools curriculum and everything needs to do all they can to improve not just women’s football but women’s sports in general.
“We need to make that shift so that anyone can play sports. This is the way I see it. We’re playing the same amount of minutes on the pitch and the same game, the only difference is gender.”
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Adding to this Hayward-Crosweller voiced her appreciation for the hope sewn by the England Women’s team in recent years:
“I’ve seen the shift from ‘girls can’t play football’ to ‘this girl can’ sort of thing. You’ve seen the slogans and with regards to the England ladies, its been amazing! With the publicity it’s bringing in and now a days you’re going into the pub to watch a ladies football game.
“A few years ago, maybe there would be no one there, now, I’m not gonna say it’s just as big as the men’s because it’s not and we have a long way to go but it’s getting there.
“I’ve watched more ladies football than men’s to be honest so seeing the spotlight being more focused on women’s football has definitely made me want to get back into again, because I knew I’d been waiting for a chance to get back into football. I’ve just been putting it off for a very long time.
“If this was about when I was playing in my prime, when I was about 16 or something, it would have sparked a lot more and now women’s football is everywhere you just want to want to play.”
