From a “scrawny little kid” to one of the finest players of the FA Women’s Premier League’s first two decades, Sue ‘Wongey’ Smith was a mercurial winger with a sweet left foot that she used to devastating effect for each of the four clubs she represented and for England in an international career that brought her 94 caps over a span of 15 years.
 
Her potential was clearly evident when, as a 15-year-old schoolgirl in her first season (1995-96) of Premier League football, she hit 12 goals to help Tranmere Rovers gain promotion from the Northern Division to the top flight. And she then made such an impact at the highest club level that she was handed her England debut at the age of 17.
 
Later in her career she starred for for Leeds United, Lincoln and Doncaster Rovers Belles, but it was at Tranmere that Smith established her reputation after making what she admits was not the easiest of transitions from the junior ranks to the top tier of the women’s game – a top tier that was itself going through a transition, from amateurism towards a more professional basis.

She says: “I went from playing kids football in the younger Tranmere sides to the first team, and it was the physicality of the Premier League that was the most difficult thing to handle. I was a scrawny little kid going into a big league; but I’d played in games with lads and I could hold my own. I had no fear and I always wanted to test myself against better players. 

 
“That’s what I had to do when we went up to the National Division. The standard was higher, the players had obviously been coached more and it was more serious. I’m not saying that players in lower leagues didn’t care about their football, but a lot of them saw it as more of a fun thing.
 
“And we did have fun. We had to beg, borrow and whatever for our kit – we’d all have tracksuits, but they’d be different makes, just the same colour. But it didn’t matter. And we travelled in a tiny mini-bus together for away games. The camaraderie was brilliant.
 
“It changed a bit when we got into the top division. For some away games we had to travel much further, so now you couldn’t get up at 11.30am and still be at the ground for a 2pm start. 
 
“That affected some players, for instance if they were Liverpool (men’s team) supporters and went on long away trips on Saturdays and got back home really late at night. That made it a more difficult commitment to play on Sundays, but you had to make the commitment.”
 
When Tranmere stepped up to the National Division in 1996 they were initially in the shadow of near neighbours Liverpool and Everton, but they punched above their weight and achieved a run of mid-table finishes with Smith in their ranks. 

 
When she departed for Leeds ahead of the 2002-03 season it was with some reluctance, despite the move meaning she could play on a semi-professional basis. 
 
She recalls: “The togetherness we had in the Tranmere squad was absolutely brilliant. I once got badly injured and all of the team came to my mum's house to see me. Fifteen girls rocked up and they were like, ‘oh, we had to see Sue.’ That was the sort of team it was, we all had each other’s backs and I absolutely didn't want to leave. 
 
“But by this time I was playing for England and people were telling me that if I wanted to progress, to go semi-pro, I had to start looking at other clubs. So I went training with a couple and I chose Leeds – they had a good team with some excellent players and great training facilities, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the club.”

Smith’s time at Leeds was not just enjoyable but quite successful too. League and FA Cup finals were reached, three of them lost – all to Arsenal – but, in 2009-10, League Cup winners’ medals were earned through victory in the final over Everton, the club she had supported all her life.
 
It was a bittersweet occasion for Smith and her team mates, but not because of their opponents. Now playing as Leeds Carnegie after having their funding from Leeds United (men’s club) cut off in 2008, and subsequently strengthening their partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University, the players were told a fortnight before the Cup final that the bid to join the newly created Women’s Super League had been withdrawn – a decision that would lead to the club’s demise.
 
Smith recalls: “We’d all been so excited about (the prospect of) going into the WSL, so we were all absolutely gutted when we were told about the bid being withdrawn.
 
“We had a great team full of internationals, players like Steph Houghton, Ellen White, Carly Telford, Sophie Bradley. If we’d gone into the WSL with that team we’d have been real challengers, but we had to split up and it was an absolute shame.

 
“A few of us went to Lincoln, Ellen and Steph went to Arsenal, the others went to different clubs.  We’d had such togetherness as a team and I think we’d had a brilliant future in the WSL, but it ended up as what might have been and that was so sad.”
 
Though Leeds as a team were denied the opportunity to play in the WSL, Smith and her now ex-colleagues stepped up and many became hugely successful at club and international levels.

The winger was now in her thirties and, after just one season at Lincoln, she joined Doncaster. Sadly a cruciate ligament injury on her debut proved the beginning of the end of her playing career, though she did have five years with the Belles.

“I never really got fully back after my ACL injury,” she says. “I did play again, but in my last couple of seasons at Donny my dad was poorly and when he passed that was pretty much the reason for me packing in. I thought ‘that’s it, I’m done.’ I just didn’t have the passion for playing anymore.”
 
Smith’s passion for playing may have ended, but not her passion for the game – a passion she was to show in what became a very successful career in the football media.
 

 
“Basically,” she explained in a Q&A session with the Guardian newspaper, “Nat used to have a cat called Susie Wong, and she started calling me Susie Wong too. 
 
“Then I got called Wong, Wongey, Wonger. Even my mum and dad used to get called Mr and Mrs Wong!” So there you go, that’s why Wongey….
  
 
The then Tranmere Rovers winger was part of the first ever FIFA Women’s All-Star team, assembled to face the USA in California on 14 February 1999 – four months ahead of the Women’s World Cup finals being staged in America and which the host nation would win.
 
“Playing for your country is huge,” says Smith, “but being selected as the only England player to play with and against some of the world’s very best was amazing, unreal.
 
“I flew into California four days before the game and I had three days of training with players from all around the world. Half of them couldn't speak English, but that wasn’t a big problem – after all football’s one language, isn’t it?
 
“After every training session we had to go and talk to the media, and there were tons and tons of journalists and broadcasters there. I was only young (19) and I was a bit like, ‘Oh, wow, this is unreal,’ because we had nothing like that in England at the time.
 
“We were playing against America to promote the World Cup finals and so I got to meet all their big stars, players Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain.

 
“At the time I was sponsored by Adidas and so was Kristine Lily, so the two of us had to do loads of promotional stuff for Adidas and that was fun.
 
“The match was a massive event. We played in the San Jose stadium and I remember walking out and it was packed, it was loud, there were fireworks going off, it was an incredible atmosphere.
 
“America were the best team in the world, but we beat them (2-1) and I loved every second of the occasion – I’d probably say the whole experience was the best of my playing career.
 
“I can remember coming home thinking, ‘I hope that one day the women’s game in England will be as big as it is in America.’ Thankfully it happened, and I’m so happy to have played my part.” 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Images from Jen O'Neill, Simon Mooney for The FA Official Photo Library and