Ella Hayward-Crosweller made her league debut for UoG Women’s football first team against the University of Bristol’s 2nd’s with a solid performance in a 3-2 loss.
Hayward-Crosweller is no stranger to the landscape of football however, as she’s previously played for both The New Saints and Powys County.
The shot-stopper has been playing football at club level since before she was twelve and has set her sights on a new challenge after not playing for a year and a half due to injury.
She’s hit the ground running having already played a friendly and made her league debut exceeding even her own expectations:
“Being in the first team now is a bit of a culture shock because I originally joined this year thinking I just want to play in the seconds.
“I haven’t played for a year and a half, so I just wanted to play in the seconds, went to the training, went to the trials, got thrown straight in the first team It was a bit of a shock, but after playing our first friendly and our first league match I’m liking it. I’m liking the professionalism of it”.
Acclimatising to a new team and returning to competitive sport can be incredibly difficult for athletes but Hayward-Crosweller has been incredibly grateful for the support provided by her teammates so far:
“The first team girls, they’ve been amazing. Casey, who was last year’s captain is my defender she’s made me feel welcome from the minute I stepped onto that pitch in the first training session”.
“These girls have all been playing for about two years now some are new, some have been playing from previous years. They kind of already knew each other, so to be put in as a goalkeeper straight away was a bit scary and I was just thinking about what they’re gonna think of me because as a goalkeeper a lot of things do get blamed on you. You don’t see the striker getting blamed It’s kind of the defence or the keeper. But you know what they have been so understanding and there’s a real team spirit in the matches and training”.
Speaking about on-pitch displays and her experience in a narrow 2-1 loss in a friendly to Hartpury University the keeper had this to say;
“Our first friendly the other week was Hartpury and and I had mixed opinions before the match, because obviously if you’ve heard of Hartpury, you know, they’re an amazing sports university and I think the university first team lost 8-0 last year so I did a bit of research for the game to think about the opposition, psych myself up a bit”.
“Got to the game and all the girls were like prepping me they were like look if you let ten in today you let ten in, so to come off that pitch only losing 2-1 against one of the biggest teams, I think they’re two leagues above, so it was an amazing feeling, I was so nervous, I literally felt like I was going to be sick in the morning but once I got out there and once the result came through I thought mm-hmm”.
Hayward-Crossweller made her league debut on Wednesday in a 3-2 loss to Bristol 2nd’s, and there was some controversy with the first goal where a foul was not given leading to the concession of a goal early in the first-half:
“The first goal was very controversial. I would say it was a foul, everyone else said it was a foul, we stopped because it was a foul, and that’s how the goal went in. So, I mean lesson learned we should always play to the whistle”.
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“I’m not going to lie I think I was a bit more nervous yesterday then for Hartpury, the score wasn’t what we wanted, but I think we all put a really good shift in”.
Looking ahead to the upcoming season Hayward-Crosweller has set herself some personal goals to enhance her performances in a hope to bring as much success to the team as possible:
“One of my biggest goals is my mental block, I need to keep a positive mindset, and with the girls that I’ve got around me on the pitch I do think that’s achievable.
“I want to be ambitious. Like I said before I didn’t want to play first, I wanted to play second team so I’ve been ambitious already, I’ve gone and taken the opportunity when an opportunity presented itself and will continue to try and do that”.
“I need to keep my confidence up, keep a great environment around me, and just keep going really and hopefully we can spark a change in women’s football at uni”
