Then and Now | Ali Miller

STARTING OUT

First team

I think I was probably around 12 when I first started playing. My older sister started playing and, naturally, being the younger sibling I wanted to do exactly what my sister did! I played for Sandhurst Town Boys and Girls FC, which was a mixed club, but I played in an all-girls team. But my team disbanded when I was 15 or 16 with players losing interest so I didn’t start playing again until university and I just picked it up again from there.

First ground

The pitches were actually pretty decent, we played at a memorial ground, so it was really good because we always had loads of pitches available to us. The club spanned from under-8s to senior level and we managed to train at a nice private school which meant we could train in the evenings and indoors if the weather was bad as well. So, it was actually quite good for what is a grassroots club playing in a local league across Berkshire. 

First icon

For me it was Steven Gerrard. I remember the England men's team being quite prominent during my childhood and I always liked watching Gerrard play. He was quite tenacious and gritty which I really like and he was a really good leader as well. Strangely, I’ve never really been much of a football fan and football wasn’t my main sport, as I grew up competing in gymnastics. If England were playing, then my mum would have it on TV while doing the ironing but nothing more than that, so football was never a big part of my childhood. 

First challenge

There was nothing external, except the fact that gymnastics and trampolining were my sports, I competed up to national level in that and I was training six times a week, so that took priority and there wasn’t time for football on top of that. There was nothing that made me think I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to in football, it was more that there were other time pressures on my life then.

Progression

It is absolutely massive, it’s just exploded. Even before England won the women’s Euros it was already growing at a huge rate and you can see now that there are so many opportunities for young girls to start playing now from such a young age. They can see it as an actual career for them, and they dedicate their time to it. You can fully commit to becoming a footballer as a woman now. 

CAREER

Best moment

I would probably say scoring against Blackburn in the fourth round of the FA Cup during Covid. Our season had been curtailed, we hadn’t played a game for a while and the FA Cup was all we had left. We had a great cup run, we put everything into it and the club banded together so well during that time. Obviously, we were playing a team two leagues above us and they’d been training throughout lockdown while we had to be socially distant so that was a great moment.

Best result

I think when we went away to Watford in the FA Cup that same year as the Blackburn game. We won 4-1 even though they were in the league above and had dominated that league and they got put up into the Championship the next season. Knowing we could go away from home on a fairly long trip and go and put in a performance where we battered them 4-1 was massive.

Best opponent

That Blackburn side we beat were far beyond what we were at the time, but teams in our league are equally as good. Burnley this year are really strong, they came and got a result against us earlier this year and they’re a really good outfit. They’re young, fit and strong but also technically really good too and they had a great tactical system, so Burnley are definitely one of the best sides we’ve played against in the past few years. 

Best stadium

I think it has to be Molineux – that place is something else. I think it’s a shame we haven’t seen it in its full glory yet. The only time I’ve played at Molineux was without fans as it was behind closed doors, but it was a great experience as well. It wasn’t just playing on the pitch, it’s the whole atmosphere of the day. The club enabled us to enjoy the day as much as possible too, we got the changing rooms and the full experience. Telford is great but I’d love to play at Molineux with that crowd there too. 

Advice

You get out what you put in, 100 per cent. Obviously, I didn’t start playing football until much later in my life, and I didn’t play at a club like Wolves until I was 22, so don’t give up. If you get dropped from a side when you’re younger or you’re on the bench at under-12s level, that’s not the end of the world. Keep working hard and it’ll pay off in the end.