Mary Phillip: Bend it like Peckham

Football starlet Mary Phillip has acquired a healthy stash of silverware with Fulham and Arsenal. Now the soccer mom has her sights set on the World Cup, finds Victoria Purcell

Above: Football star and Peckham native Mary Phillip is a star defender for Arsenal and England

The male-dominated world of football has turned talk of "the double" and "the treble" into tiresome cliché. Thankfully the Arsenal Ladies team have given footie lexicon a shake-up by taking the quadruple. The 2006/7 season saw them take the FA Women’s Cup, the UEFA Women’s Cup, the FA Women’s Premier League Cup and the FA Women’s Premier League trophy.

"We’ve just had the best season ever – I’ve still got a smile on my face," said Mary Phillip, the Peckham-based central defender. "The last three or four years we’d been winning domestic trophies, but last year we did well in Europe too, played in the final against a Swedish team and beat them 1-0. We’re champions of Europe. Then we came home and went a whole season without losing a league game. A clean sweep!"

It’s a fitting achievement for a girl who grew up kicking a ball around the streets near Millwall Football Club. This and watching the team in action drove her towards becoming a Millwall Lioness at the age of 12.

She made her England debut in 1996, and when the opportunity to go pro came along, Mary snapped it up, spending three years at Fulham as one of only 16 professional female players in the country. May 2003 saw her lift The FA Women’s Cup in front of 10,000 fans at Selhurst Park, the season she captained Fulham to the treble.

"That was fantastic," she beamed. "That was a landmark; my first triple ever won. I can’t find the words to explain, but in front of one of the biggest crowds in women’s football… that was amazing."

Alas the professional set-up came to an end shortly after when financial backing fell through. Not one to dwell, Mary moved to Arsenal, becoming part of a breed of semi-professional female football players struggling to earn a living while training hard to stay top of the game. Mary coaches Peckham Town Youth Team, and has the added complication, though a merry one, of raising two young boys with her partner.

"When I was at Fulham it was a job, I was paid. But now I have to work. All the girls have to work and train at the same time. It’s tough. I do some coaching around my training, look after my kids and still see my family and friends. It’s been a pretty fine juggling act but it just all falls into place for me. I’ve always wanted to play at high level, but when I had my kids people said, ‘You won’t get back into the England team,’ and that pushed me to do that. So I made them a part of my footballing life. They used to come with me to away games and come training with me and all that."

It certainly seems to have worked. After spending a few years out of the international arena while having her two sons, she returned to play for England in 2002 and some stellar performances showed she was back to full fitness. Mary went on to captain England in two international friendlies against Sweden in February 2006 when usual skipper Faye White was injured, and again at the start of the 2006/07 season when the team overcame France to secure passage to the World Cup in China.

Mary grins again when asked how it feels to play for your country: "It’s a great honour. You want to play top football and you want to play with the top players in the world, and at international level you do that. It’s fantastic."

With the Women’s World Cup due to kick off in China this September, Mary has stepped up the training and is hoping it will all pay off. "It’s nervy because we’re in preparation now. Only 21 players can go out of the 30-woman squad. I’ve put all the hard work in, but at the end of the day it’s down to the manager."

With all this travelling, could Mary be lured away from Peckham to ease the commute? "I’ve lived in Peckham all my life. I’m a Peckham girl. My friends and family are nearby and I know everything around here, so it’s nice for me." And with a host of training spots nearby, like Crystal Palace, Peckham Pulse, Dulwich Park and the Rye, it looks like Mary’s here to stay.

To find out more about Arsenal and their fixtures, visit www.arsenal.com