Wolves Women midfielder Becky Anderson shares her matchday routine and superstitions.
First thing
Usually, I will get up, have a shower and try to wake myself up and get refreshed. I always have to do that on the morning of a matchday, and then if I’ve got time, depending on how early we have to leave, I'll try to go out for just a little walk and some fresh air, maybe a little bit of stretching. It just helps to wake my body up, clear my head, get as relaxed as possible and take my mind off football.
Food and drink
If I’m eating at home before an away game, I'll usually have porridge and fruit, and probably a banana, then for a home game, I probably won't have porridge, but I’ll have eggs on toast once I get to the stadium for pre-match. I don’t like to eat like loads before a game, because I feel heavy and slow. I’ve always had the same sort of thing, although I’ve probably become less stringent about it as I've got older, such as alternating between eggs or porridge, or whatever I fancy, rather than thinking I have to eat a certain thing.
Talking a good game
At home, we probably don’t really speak too much about the match. Normally, we’re just talking about general things and then we’ll speak about football nearer to the time we get to the ground.
On the headphones
Normally I travel in with Char [Greengrass], Lynno [Harkin] and Simsy [Amy Sims], and Char is normally the one on the music. We’ll try to be playing music with a positive energy, so nothing too slow or sad. It’s got to be good vibes, so sometimes it’s 80s, or it might be more modern. We also listen to Heart and like to play a game where we try to guess what the next song will be that they’ll play. Everyone has to choose a song and if one of them comes on, it goes a bit mad in the car. But Simsy is really good at it, to be honest, and normally wins. We have quite similar music tastes so there’s be no complaints.
Bus buddies
We all have our little groups, but everyone also blends together. The younger members of the team will often have a bit of a dance and a sing-song, they’re normally at the back of the bus, and then the quieter members of the team tend to accumulate further to the front, but the younger ones are providing the entertainment most of the time.
At the ground
I’m quite a tidy person, so I like to have everything in its place, so as soon as I get to the ground I’ll make sure my station has everything in place all neat. Not in any particular order but just make sure it’s neat and tidy. I’m also not a superstitious person, so I haven’t got to have one boot here and one boot there, but I like things to just be tidy. I think it’s mostly a mental thing and helps me being in a calmer environment.
Game mode
When we come back in from the warm-up, we’ll have the team playlist on, the music will be on, and I like to just check set pieces and what might occur during the game. I just try to stay relatively calm and not overthink too much but just focus on a few key points that we’ve talked about across the week, remind myself about them, and just get ready to go out and play.
Post-match plans
If we’ve won, we probably tend to put the music on and have another sing-song to celebrate the win. Everyone gets involved, there’s a lot of socks flying around the changing rooms, and we'll probably hang about and socialise for a little bit after the game and just have a good time. Obviously, it’s a bit different if we lose.
Switching off
It’s really easy for me to switch off after a game that we’ve won because I just love coming home and relaxing. I’ll probably put something on the TV, catch up on the day's football, or put a movie on or a TV series. If we lose, it does become harder because you almost feel like you don’t deserve to relax. A loss will always linger with you until you train again. As soon as we get back in for analysis on a Tuesday, then you have to just park it, because it's done and you can't do anything about it at that point. You have to move on and prepare for the next game. The best thing is having another game soon after, so it doesn’t linger as long, and you have something else to focus on.
This article originally featured in Wolves' official 2025/26 matchday programme. Last season's programmes are still available to purchase online through retailers Curtis Sports.
