The greatest of Great Escapes: Remarkable double Championship survival completed for fighting city of Portsmouth
Remarkable Pompey Women have pulled off a stunning Great Escape - and their head coach has hailed the ‘momentous’ achievement as greater than promotion.
Jay Sadler’s side headed into March with just two points from 15 matches, leaving them rooted to the football of the Women’s Championship.
It has been an incredible late resurgence from Pompey Women, who hadn’t even won a league game until March 2 - then triumphed in three of their final six fixtures.
With Southampton Women also granting a huge favour by beating rivals Sheffield United on Sunday, it ensures the Blades are instead relegated.
With John Mousinho’s side also having achieved survival seven days earlier, it has been quite a week at Fratton Park following a season of relegation worry.
And Sadler’s team, who memorably won the Women's Premier League Southern Division title last season, have retained their Championship status in their first campaign at this level.
He told The News: ‘It’s a Great Escape. Everyone wrote us off, it would be fair to say even some supporters had doubts, and rightfully so.
‘We had two points coming into March, it took us five games before scoring our first league goal. We lost 5-0 at home to Southampton, which was my darkest day in football.
‘Winning on Sunday will go down as the brightest day in terms of how we flipped it around - and this feeling is better than winning the title a year ago.
‘Last year we enjoyed it more and there was a big, big party. It was huge winning that league after taking us an eternity to get out of - but to now stay in this league is monumental.
‘I firmly believed it, it’s just whether or not as a group we could believe it too and turn that belief into performances. All we had to do was stay focused
‘It was accepting the quality of the league, accepting that the jump from the league below is massive, accepting that physicality was a huge step up - and it was more of an adaptation period for us.
‘The concerns were whether that adaptation period was going to be too long for us to claw back the points or whether we would have enough to do it.
‘14 of the girls were here last year and, given the position we were in before the New Year, to then find a way to find 11 points to stay up is monumental.’
Southampton’s huge favour
Pompey Women had scored just three times in their opening 12 games in all competitions, reflecting their tough introduction into the Women’s Championship.
They then put four past Blackburn on Sunday, with top-scorer Sophie Quirk (two), Megan Hornby and substitute Emma Thompson registering.
With Sheffield United’s clash with Southampton kicking off earlier, news of that 3-2 defeat filtered through at half-time at Fratton Park.
Sadler’s side were leading 2-0 at the time, yet knew it would take just a point to confirm their Championship survival - and they made sure with an emphatic victory.
Sadler added: ‘We started the game a bit nervy, as you would expect in a match of this magnitude, but as soon as we were able to pounce on Blackburn’s mistakes, we were ruthless.
‘I have to give so much credit to the staff and the players. While the owners allowed us to strengthen in January, bringing in experienced players who played at this level, which helped massively for us.
‘We never lost belief - and we were right.’
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