Women’s first-team forward Liv Fergusson dissects the winger position before delving into the future to predict what her career, Wolves Women and women’s football could look like in five years’ time.
Did you always want to be a winger?
When I started off playing seven-a-side I was a defender, but when I played in the girls’ teams I was always an attacker, and as soon as the pitch got bigger I was always a wide player. I have played down the middle quite often in senior football, but I would always want to be an attacking wide player.
What is the best part of being a winger?
You have the freedom to be creative and you can put your own spin on it. You have wide players who like to take players on, some just like to deliver, some like to cut inside, some like to cut outside, so you can always be creative in the role, while getting the plaudits by contributing with goals and assists.
What is the hardest part of being a winger?
Work rate is a big one because you’re obviously having to cover large areas of the pitch and constantly having to get up and down. There’s also the challenges of being up against a tough full-back or having to break down a team which plays with a low block and back five with not much space.
What qualities are needed to be a winger?
You can be quite unique as a wide player. You see so many different styles, but generally you need a bit of speed, you need to be good at one-v-ones, attacking and defending and have the ability to go on the outside and cross and go on the inside and shoot.
What do you work on most as a winger?
The relationship with the full-back is a big one, in terms of positioning, but you’re mainly working on your attacking one-v-ones and getting the crosses into dangerous areas in the box.
What other position would you like to play?
I might be really boring, but probably full-back. I know that’s quite similar to being a wide player, but I couldn’t see myself anywhere else on the pitch. I just love the wide areas and hugging the touchline!
What is the hardest other position to play?
In my opinion, it’s centre-midfield. Being a wide player, you can see the whole pitch in front of you, but to play in the midfield, it’s quite difficult. You need 360 degree vision and eyes in the back of your head so you can receive the ball in tight areas and get out of them.
Which other wingers do you watch and learn from?
I wouldn’t say learn from as I’m older than most of them! But when I was at Bristol, Lauren Hemp came into our first-team to make her senior debut and I love watching her play. I love seeing how she’s developed over the years and would always recommend young girls wanting to be an ‘old-school’ winger to watch Lauren.
In five years’ time…
Personal achievements
Hopefully I’ll be retired! Coming here and playing for Wolves has been massive for me as I’ve been here, there and everywhere during my career, but I would love be here until I finish playing. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, saying that I’ve come down to tier three to end my career, because the league is so good now and the standard has improved so much, but as a Wolves fan, it means everything to end my career at the club I’ve supported my whole life.
Wolves’ future
We all want to say Super League, but realistically, I would love for us to be an established team in the Championship. Hopefully we can go up and consolidate for a few years, and then we can look at smashing it in the Championship and look to push on to the Super League.
Hopes for the women’s game
The opportunities for it are endless. After seeing the last five or 10 years, you couldn’t see how far it’s come along, so imagine what it will be like in another five years. With regards to England and the Lionesses, I would love to see us win more tournaments, the Euros again and of course the World Cup.
Changes to women’s football
Personally, I would like to see the leagues restructured. Even if they just did 14 teams in the top two leagues, we need to get a few more professional teams going, particularly with how good tier three is now. Several of the teams in our league would do well higher up the pyramid – the likes of us, Forest, Newcastle, Burnley, and that’s just in the northern tier, that’s not even looking at the south. For me, that’s the next step if we want to keep growing the game because clubs are waiting to go up to the Championship before they change their models but, at the moment, it’s so hard to get out of tier three, it’s actually slowing the development down.
Remembering the current Wolves team
Looking at the group we’ve got now, we would all love to be remembered as the team that got Wolves to the Championship. They’ve already been promoted and won consecutive league titles over the last few years, but if you can be the team which takes Wolves from amateur to professional level, I’d love to be part of that.
