Rachel Williams and Manchester United are ready to end their trophy drought

It was another moment when Manchester United’s Rachel Williams played in an FA Cup final for the first time.

The now 36-year-old striker was playing for Birmingham City in 2012 in front of 8,723 fans at Bristol’s Ashton Gate. This weekend, she will be part of United’s squad at a sold-out Wembley – more than 10 times the original attendance.

Chelsea were the other finalists 12 years ago but will not face United this weekend as Williams scored the winner in the semi-final that ended their three-year stranglehold on the competition.

Instead, United will face Tottenham Hotspur – Williams’ previous club – with a new name guaranteed on the trophy for the first time since Manchester City won it in 2017.

“I was quite naive to what certain things meant, trophy-wise, to a club because as a kid you were just playing,” says Williams, reflecting on his first senior final.

“It wasn’t until the day of the match where the talk was going – ‘Oh, if Birmingham could win… especially against Chelsea’ – that I started to think. ‘This is going to be big. That will mean something.”

At the time, Williams was in her first spell at Birmingham, having played for Leicester City and Doncaster Rovers Belles. She scored a 91st minute equalizer to send the final into extra time and Birmingham went on to win on penalties despite missing the first kick in the shootout. It remains Williams’ only major honor.

“Everything kind of slows down,” she says. “We all went crazy and it was carnage afterwards. But I don’t actually think – I’ve never seen one – that I have a picture of me holding the trophy from that day. I don’t think I even got hold of it because it just went through everyone. There’s probably no evidence that we won.”

Well, Rachel, let me The Athletic (and Getty Images) to help you out here…

Proof, Rachel! Proof! (Nigel French – PA Images via Getty Images)

United Women are still waiting for that first moment as a club.

It’s been a disappointing season for them as they sit fifth in the WSL and on track for their fewest points in their five-year stint in the top division. After last year’s second-place finish – they were just two points behind eventual champions Chelsea – manager Marc Skinner was under pressure.

There were shouts of “Skinner out! in a pre-season friendly with criticism of his style of play and after a 3-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in January, Williams asked fans to put down signs that said just that. Williams initially played under Skinner in her second spell at Birmingham between 2017 and 2019 before he signed her for United at the start of last season.

“We’ve had some tough games this year, some ups and downs,” Williams says. “A lot of the media and fans out there forget that United are (only) five or six years old. We have a young team, we are still learning. One thing we can guarantee is that we give it our all, and trophies will come to this club. It might be during my time here, it might be after. We just have to stick together.”

United may be a relatively new club, but they have the fourth oldest squad in the WSL, with an average age of 27.5 years. Williams is one of their players who can provide experience.

At 36 years old and At four months old, she is the second-oldest player to appear in the WSL this season, behind Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey, who is 89 days older. And she is having one of the most successful seasons of her career with 10 goals in all competitions, her best tally since 2015 when she was at Notts County. That goal against Chelsea in the semi-finals was the most important of all.

Rachel Williams in the air :pinched_fingers:

Delivery from @ellatoone99 was precisely for @ManUtdWomen :lance:#AdobeWomensFACup pic.twitter.com/ajBoTl7y0k

— Adobe Women’s FA Cup (@AdobeWFACup) April 14, 2024

“I got the call to start that game and I left practice on Saturday and I thought, ‘There’s never, ever, a doubt in my mind that I’m going to play the biggest game of my life,'” Williams says.

“I haven’t had a lot of game time with Tooney (teammate Ella Toone) but I sit there and watch her every week putting in crosses and think, ‘I want to be on the end of them.’

“And she said to me in the locker room, ‘Rach, if I get a cross, where do you want it?’ I said, ‘Tooney, I promise you, beat the first quarterback. Beat the first defender, I’ll find her’. I was watching her on the sideline and saw her put it in. And that was it. We found the finish to put us 2-0 up.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, bloody fair. For once they (Chelsea) can see what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that.” It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we won and that’s what mattered.”

Despite Lauren James pulling a goal back in first-half stoppage time, United held on for their first win against Chelsea at the 10th attempt. It set up a second consecutive FA Cup final.

“When the final whistle went I didn’t even think ‘You’ve just got into the FA Cup final’. It was like, ‘Finally we competed with Chelsea, we did what we had to do and we won the game,'” Williams says.

That reaction shows the psychological gap United have had to deal with when it comes to facing the most successful team in the domestic women’s game in recent years. But the victory did not bring a form boost, with Skinner’s side winning just one of their three league games since, including a 2-2 draw against Sunday’s opponents Tottenham.

“I like that we drew against Spurs. It left us in a very humble place,” says Williams. “We’ll go in knowing we’re on a level playing field.

“I just want to win a trophy and a medal. I love to play football and that’s what I’m there for.”

(Top photo: Williams celebrates her semi-final winner against Chelsea. Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)