Sunday (Arrival)

Everyone had to be at the Hilton hotel at their specified times. I travelled down with Johnno, Jody, Browny and Fara..it was good to catch up on all the Everton gossip. When we arrived in reception we looked over to the bar area and there was an acrobatic lady getting wine from a huge tower. We found this very amusing and stayed to watch for a while. We knew from this moment it was going to be an entertaining week.

Monday (the flight)

The players that did not play on the Sunday had to do a ‘blow-out’ session in the gym basically this means we work really hard to increase our heart rates in preparation for the week ahead. So for me it was the bike and the cross trainer to try and protect planter faciitis which I have been suffering with for the past couple of months. We then had lunch and it was time to fly to Nantes. On the plane I was sitting next to the usual gang members of Vic, Yanks and Mary. While we were chatting we had an idea. A quiz! Not an ordinary quiz though, this was one with a difference! So this was where our photo taking began….

Tuesday (training begins)

Today was the start of the real training and preparation. We started with getting our defensive strategies sorted. However, the most important decision of the day was that we got the go-ahead for the big quiz from the gaffer! We had 2 training sessions today and finished the day with a psychology meeting. We went back to our room feeling physically and mentally drained. We soon perked up when we started making up silly questions for our quiz.

Wednesday (the big day)

Not England verses France silly it’s the quiz! Hope caught us un-prepared and tonight is the only night we can do it. The team were all getting worried about it as the composers of the quiz (me, yanks and Mary) are renowned for being pranksters or just down right silly! The quiz was made up of Do you know your team-mates? Which included edited pictures of players and staff – Some people, naming no names (Chapman and johnno) didn’t recognise themselves! (sorry girls!!)

The best two rounds were firstly ‘words on a card’ - this was where one person had to mime a word for the rest of the group to guess, the best being Misha our psychologists impression of a bunny rabbit and Johnno’s impression of a jelly baby - they will never live it down. The other round were where teams had to pick an object that we had carefully selected and had to re-enact the advert that they came from.

It was very amusing watching staff and players making fools of themselves. As we love to make fools of ourselves too we decided to depart the quiz using the Maria programme “so long, farewell, Auf weidersen goodbye”. Everyone laughed and applauded so that made it all worth while for us showgirls!. The winners of the quiz Crouchy's crew (Jill scott being Crouch for obvious reasons)

Thursday (Back to preparation)

After all the fun of the night before we now had to re-focus on the job at hand which was getting a result against France. It is good to mix the week up with a variety of different activities some fun, some serious, otherwise you would go out of your mind with stress about the game. Today we worked on our attacking and defending strategies for the game and we play an 8 v 8 that was really high tempo. We do this to get our bodies and minds sharp and ready.

Friday (day before the game)

Today both excitement and nerves are creeping in and most people now realise the biggest game of their career is just around the corner. All the meetings were focusing on how we need to stay together and strong as a squad. We did speak about China and how great it would be but tried to put it to the back of our minds and do the job first. Both the desire and belief to succeed was the highest I have ever seen it. We had one training session in the evening at the ground so the rest of our spare time we watched DVDs. Vicki Exley who normally buys rubbish films actually surprised us all and we were hooked on the film (Cinderella Man).

Saturday (the next big day of the week)

The day we have all been waiting - match day – had arrived. We had lots of time to relax and prepare ourselves for the game. This mainly entailed eating, sleeping and watching more films (a coach potatoes dream!) We have a squad of twenty players and we can only have eighteen on the bench so we all wait in anticipation to see who the two left out were, lucky for me I was in the eighteen. We leave our hotel at 6.30 for the game, when we arrive there were already fans there. We knew then that the atmosphere was going to be electric.

We had 200 travelling fans so during the national anthems a lot of the girls were emotional that all their friends and family had made a big effort to come and support us. They did us proud and truly believe they helped us greatly. They must have no voices left, as they didn’t stop singing throughout. It was very nervous sitting on the bench and I just really wanted to get on and play. We scored half way through the second half and we all went mad (I actually couldn’t celebrate I jumped up that fast I banged my head on the dugout and was more groaning than cheering) I got the nod from Hope that I was going on with about 20 minutes left with the advice to just keep it tight and if I get a chance have a go.

France equalised after only a few minutes of me being on. The nerves on everybody’s face were clear to see and we had to hold on, we just couldn’t let it slip. The ref signalled 3 minutes extra time but we defended fantastically well and the final whistle went. Everyone went mad and the team spirit was amazing. We had done it we are going to China! Back in the hotel our friends and family were there to celebrate with us. This was a very nice touch for the party to continue and I can leave the rest to your imagination. What a great night…

Sunday (My head hurts)

Today the realisation actually set in that we have qualified for a World Cup. The heartbreak of four years ago was a distant memory. Most of the day we spent travelling and discussing the day and night before. We had a few delays but eventually we were on the plane and on our way home (no snakes on the plane thankfully - another film we watched!). Finally we arrived home at 12ish but it was all worth it.

WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!!!