ONE of the stars of England’s heroic journey in the Women’s World Cup admits finishing third on the biggest stage in Women’s football was an experience she will never forget in a hurry.
Jade Moore came on as a second half substitute during the opening group game against France last month, but started every other game on England’s route to the semi-final before they cruelly lost out to Japan.
The 24-year-old was a key cog in the heart of Mark Sampson’s midfield and produced a series of impressive performances that helped the Lionesses secure there bet ever finish at an international competition.
England’s success has lifted the profile of women’s football back home with record attendances seen at most Super League and Super League 2 fixtures on Sunday.
And Moore knows the importance of getting more people through the gate as the sport continues to ride the wave of their World Cup exploits.
“The World Cup to be honest seems a bit of a blur now but it was an amazing experience,” said Moore.
“I took each game as it came and tried not to think about it too much. I tried not to think too much about the occasion.
“But now I can sit back and look back and think ‘wow…what an achievement’.
“But it’s good to get back to Blues and play at Manchester City in front of thousands of fans who are supporting the women’s game on the back of a positive World Cup.
“Everyone always says supporters come when you achieve something. So for us to go out there to World Cup and win a bronze medal by coming third in the World Cup with a lot of support from the nation gives the women’s game justice for once.
“So I think all of the clubs in the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Super League 2 really need to capitalise on it and really start getting people and numbers through the gate.
“They need to realise it’s not just nationally that the women’s game is good domestically as well.”
Moore returned back to reality last Sunday with Birmingham City Ladies but she knows it will take time to recover both physically and mentally from her adventure in Canada.
“It has been hard to get back into club football again. It’s mad because as I was walking out of the tunnel on Sunday I was stood next to Steph (Houghton) and KB (Karen Bardsley) in the tunnel and I was like ‘this is weird, usually I’m behind you’.
“But yes it will take a bit of time, a few weeks just to settle back into a few things and get back into the swing of training. We haven’t trained in the morning since we’ve been out at the World Cup so that’s been about eight weeks.
“We do a couple of training sessions in the morning at Blues so early mornings are going to be tough but they’re only going to help with the jet lag.”
Blues returned to Super League action on Sunday when they visited Manchester City and despite more than matching their opponents they narrowly lost 1-0.
A Toni Duggan goal eight minutes into the second half was enough to secure all three points for the hosts, but Moore insists there were plenty of positives to take from the defeat.
“I thought we did well on Sunday,” she added. “We did have patterns of play that we wanted to stick to but I think in the second half we let ourselves down a bit.
“We gave them a sloppy goal and I think we were on the back front from then.
“We come into games and we don’t want to concede, so for us to concede on Sunday that has been a poor start for us.
“If we hadn’t of conceded we would have come home with a point and we could have built on that momentum for the rest of the season.
“But other than that it was a good performance. Credit to Manchester City they pushed until the end and for us it’s something that we need to work on.”
