From powering home killer goals with Wimbledon and Arsenal in the Premier League, to expertly guiding Southampton into the FAWNL Southern Division as their inspirational head coach, Marieanne Spacey-Cale has enjoyed a remarkable career in the National League.

“I’ve played in it, and coached in it, and won [in both] – that never registered with me before!” she admits. “Probably because when I was playing, it was to win whatever competition I was in; when I’m coaching I want the team to perform in whatever competition we are in.”

One of the deadliest strikers of her generation, with a blistering shot and a devastating ability to switch play, Spacey-Cale is not short of highlights from either strand of her career.

As a player, there was a champagne moment with Wimbledon and Vic Akers; her super fan dad and his camper van; the welcome into the Arsenal family of her baby daughter; David Dein’s admiration for her touch and technique; and working alongside unsung heroes such as the talented Kirsty Pealling.

As for her coaching days, the Pro Licence holder recalls a baptism of fire with Fulham, then a journey with Southampton that saw her guide her players through a pandemic and out the other side.

It all began in 1991 when her club Wimbledon – formerly Friends of Fulham – took their place as one of the eight founding teams in the top flight of the first nationwide league for women’s football.

As Friends of Fulham, they had won the 1985 WFA Cup and twice finished as runners-up, but plying their trade in the Home Counties League still meant Spacey-Cale and her team mates only occasionally faced clubs from beyond the South East.

But once the WFA’s new National League kicked off, it was clear to the Wimbledon goal-getter that things were about to get more interesting.

“Apart from the FA Cup, when we’d gone out of region, we weren’t really exposed to national teams,” she recalls. “Suddenly every week you were playing Knowsley, Notts, Doncaster Belles. It felt like, ‘Wow the game is starting to change’.

“And it felt different because you were then travelling, staying overnight, and it felt like the levels had gone up in terms of competition and different opposition, which was exciting.”

Club life was set to alter too, with Wimbledon FC and their owner Sam Hammam getting fully behind their new women’s team, even making Plough Lane their home.

“We had proper match day programmes; printed, glossy, and we were in the men’s programme, so all those bits off the pitch now felt more serious,” she says. “Everything felt like it had taken a step up.”

Spacey-Cale says around 700 spectators turned out to watch Wimbledon host Notts Rangers in their first Premier League outing.

“I can remember there being a big crowd all in one stand; people around the edges as well,” she says. “And that came from having the club back us and advertising the game, and I think we maintained that level of support.”

That maiden League season, Wimbledon paid back their fans with an impressive third-placed finish and although they slipped to fourth the following year, they still contributed to an agonisingly close title race.

“We had beaten Doncaster Belles for Arsenal to win it,” she recalls. “Then Vic Akers sent Fred Brockwell, who was our manager, a bottle of champagne to say thank you!”

By the end of that summer, Akers had even more to be grateful to Wimbledon for – England international Spacey-Cale had made the difficult decision to leave a team environment she had held dear since the 1980s, for Arsenal.

“We had done so well as Friends of Fulham and Wimbledon, but I wanted to be a regular trophy winner and I saw Arsenal was the opportunity to go to that next level again,” she says. “It was about being a better player in a different environment.

“And you look back at that Arsenal squad [over the years] and what talent there was; Kirsty Pealling could put the ball on a sixpence for you, Ciara Grant was very unsung, Faye White was a dominant defender.

“There’s the short time I played with Kelly Smith, and Michelle Curley was another one – the men had Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon, we had Kirsty Pealling and Michelle Curley and they were outstanding wing backs.”

Spacey-Cale had her admirers too, not least Arsenal vice chairman David Dein, who watched rapt as she unleashed a 30-yard howitzer on the way to an emphatic 4-0 League Cup Final win over Doncaster Belles in her first season.

“Normally they were quite edgy games, but it was a really dominant performance from us,” she recalls. “And David Dein was sat in front of my dad and when I scored he said, ‘We’re going to have to show that goal to the boys because we need them to score goals like that!’

“That showed again, like at Wimbledon, how it went to the next level. You had somebody like David Dein coming to games and being a real advocate for, not just Arsenal, but the women’s game. He used to talk about being ‘on the train’ – women’s football is starting now so be on the train at this moment because it will gather pace.”

Although she fell pregnant in 1995, Spacey-Cale barely took her foot off the gas and was back less than four months after giving birth to play her part in what turned out to be a victorious Premier League season for Arsenal.

The race to claim further silverware was relentless too, the team clinching both Cups and a place in their Double-winning men’s open top bus parade in 1998, then a Treble of titles in the all-conquering 2000-01 season, and another League trophy the following term.

Along the road, Arsenal were backed by a small but dedicated band of away fans that included Spacey-Cale’s dad and her daughter Sophie.

“There were some fans that, like today, would follow us everywhere,” she says. “I remember there was a husband and wife who used to travel and were Vicki Slee’s biggest fans.

“And the players just embraced Sophie as one of their team mates. She would travel with us and I don’t recall any kickback, apart from when she wanted to watch the ‘Lion King’ on the coach!

“My dad would drive up in his camper van, watch the game with Sophie, then travel back. And Vic was excellent, he just said, ‘Sophie is part of you and we want you in the club so she’s part of the club’.”

The scorer of many outstanding goals, such as the flash of individual brilliance and clinical finishing that saw off Liverpool in the 1995 FA Cup Final, by the time Spacey-Cale left Arsenal in 2002, she had cemented a reputation as one of the Gunners’ greatest forwards.

Even at the age of 36, the Londoner had closed out that season as the League's top scorer and was the toast of team mates and rivals alike as they crowned her the FA Players’ Player of the Year.

But despite having already stepped back from an England career that delivered 28 goals in 91 caps, Spacey-Cale was not yet done and she swapped the red of Arsenal for the white of full-time professionals Fulham.

As a single mum who had always juggled football with work, to get the chance to play as a professional in the twilight of her career was a no-brainer. 

That year did not go entirely to plan, however, with Spacey-Cale suffering a dreaded anterior cruciate ligament injury in pre-season. 

The Londoner was not finished, though, and she battled back to help Fulham claim the Treble while pragmatically turning the only serious injury of her career into a positive.

“I spent six months on the sidelines, but it taught me a lot about the mentality and resilience you need to be isolated in the training ground because you’re doing your rehab,” she says.

“I can draw back on those experiences now as a coach, and it got me watching that pace of game from a coaching perspective rather than playing.”

That said, agreeing to take charge of Fulham in 2003 after the FA’s idea of a professional league was abandoned and the Cottagers were no longer full-time was a leap into the unknown.

“I still didn’t understand coaching when I went straight from playing,” she says. “It was a big transition that I wasn’t really ready for, but I tried to embrace it the best way I could.”

After Fulham folded in 2006, Spacey-Cale went back to basics, bolstering her experience by working as a grassroots coach with the Worcestershire FA before moving onwards and upwards with England.

Bringing her technical and interpersonal skills to bear as assistant manager, she was part of the Lionesses' 2015 World Cup bronze medal triumph and, two years later, led the Under-23s to Nordic Tournament victory.

Since then she has enhanced her reputation further as the architect of Southampton’s rise from Tier 5 into the FA Women’s Championship.

It was a journey that encompassed two Covid 19-hit seasons, times when Southampton were bossing the Premier Division South with unbeaten runs until the country and football went into lockdown.

“You have to look at it from a performance perspective but also a life perspective,” she says. “Covid was what it was and you had to follow the rules because you didn’t want to put peoples’ lives at risk, but we had such momentum it was frustrating.”

Even so, Southampton made it into the National League’s Southern Premier for the 2021-22 season through the team’s superior points per game record.

And once back in the League she had bossed as a player, Spacey-Cale guided her charges to the title, following up with a play-off victory over Northern Premier champions Wolves to reach the Championship.

At the time it was just another must-win match, but as no great fan of do-or-die play-offs, the Southampton boss is happy that now the Northern and Southern teams both go up.

“You’ve got clubs there that can compete in the Championship, so you need to keep that pipeline of talent coming through the League pathway,” she says. 

As for Southampton, well, their route to success appears seamless, but it was all by design, with Spacey-Cale and her staff aiming to give the players a “full-time kind of environment” despite remaining amateur, with training in the evenings.

“The Southern Premier was so competitive and to get out in the first year was excellent,” she says. “But we had the facilities, the opportunities; the set-up was already Championship.

“We were always thinking a year ahead and building the infrastructure, and a lot of players had come through our pathway so there was this desire for the badge.

“We’d worked hard to put everything in place to give us the platform to be successful on the pitch.

“And we had some real talent that loved playing for the club and it’s hard to compete against that sometimes.”

Which is perhaps how the game best remembers National League legend Spacey-Cale; as a rare talent and a fierce but fair competitor.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: With thanks to Catherine Etoe for the interview/written feature and Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO, Simon Mooney, Matt Lewis - The FA/The FA via Getty Images, James Bridle - Southampton FC/Southampton FC via Getty Image.