Within the 90s and 00s, Charlton have been a powerhouse in girls’s soccer. Recurrently competing with Arsenal and in a number of cup finals, it has taken them 19 years to return to the highest flight in England.
The Addicks helped lay the foundations for the success we now see within the girls’s recreation within the UK – however like many groups, their fortunes have typically been inextricably linked to the success of their male counterparts.
It was the boys’s relegation to the Championship in 2007 that noticed the ladies’s group disbanded – simply two years after profitable the FA Cup. They ultimately secured sponsorship and have been run by the Charlton Neighborhood Belief, however lots of the gamers left and the membership struggled to stabilise.
It took 11 years for the membership to earn promotion to the then-Girls’s Championship in 2018 – nevertheless it was 2021 that proved to be a transformative yr for Charlton.
The group was purchased again underneath the membership’s management, former Addick Karen Hills was appointed as head coach and so they went totally skilled. The goal ever since has been the WSL – and now they’re getting ready for his or her first yr again in England’s high league since 2008, going through Liverpool on Sunday of their season opener, stay on Sky Sports activities.
Hills – the primary supervisor to information two golf equipment to WSL promotion – solely informed Sky Sports activities: “To have Charlton again within the high division nearly 20 years on is a ‘pinch me’ second… the membership deserves to be there.
“To complete the best way that we did [last season], I all the time discuss it as being a fairytale season for us, nevertheless it’s nothing that they [the players] do not deserve. The dedication, the work fee, the will to get themselves over the road the best way they did. It was an unbelievable achievement.
“The most important factor now’s we now have to respect the groups, however we should not worry them. We’re right here for a cause and we received right here on benefit. We do not need to simply make numbers up. We need to be right here to be aggressive, sustainable and to attempt to push Charlton again to the place it was 20 years in the past.”
How Whitehouse’s penalty heroics fired Charlton to the WSL
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Highlights of Charlton towards Leicester within the Girls’s Tremendous League play off remaining
Their top-flight return got here in dramatic circumstances. Charlton led the WSL2 desk for a lot of the 2025/26 season, having gone on an unimaginable 27-match unbeaten run. The truth is, they have been high heading into the ultimate day, though a run of poor kind late on noticed Birmingham and Crystal Palace catch up.
Reflecting on the top of season spell, Hills stated: “Going into the second half of the season, we knew the switch window within the winter was extra profitable for different groups and possibly not as profitable for us.
“You additionally begin to get a little bit bit fatigued and to maintain that profitable mentality going towards groups round us that had strengthened was all the time going to be a problem. There have been then two disappointing video games towards Crystal Palace and Birmingham the place we have been shut, however did not fairly recover from the road.”
One of many video games Hills talked about was a straight shoot-out with the Blues at The Valley on the ultimate day to safe promotion – however Charlton misplaced 2-0, and with their south London rivals additionally profitable, the Addicks ultimately completed third.
It meant they confronted a relegation/promotion play-off towards Leicester – the primary to be performed within the English recreation. After a goalless draw, Charlton received on penalties with goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse saving 4 of the Foxes’ 5 spot kicks in a rare efficiency.
The goalkeeper defined: “In coaching, we all the time undergo the penalty takers earlier than a recreation. Me and the goalkeeping coach will undergo the place they doubtlessly have gone earlier than, what’s more likely to occur relying on their run-up and the day earlier than, we practise penalties for the outfield gamers.
“However then me and the opposite ‘keeper, Anna [Pedersen], we might keep out for an additional 5 minutes and he or she would say ‘I am [Noemie] Mouchon’ after which she shot precisely the place we thought she would, so I used to be already ready for doubtlessly the place they might go.
“However then within the play-off, Emily van Egmond stepped up and we had no information on her penalties, so it’s important to adapt and base it off of what you’ve got achieved your entire profession.
“Within the shoot-out, I assumed ‘I simply want to avoid wasting one and that can give us an incredible alternative’, and I saved the primary one. I used to be like ‘okay, excellent’ – after which we missed. I assumed ‘oh no, I even have to avoid wasting one other one now!’, so I saved one other one after which we missed once more. I used to be like ‘come on!’, so then I needed to save once more.
“After that, I used to be simply having enjoyable. Everybody requested me what was I considering, however in that second, I used to be like ‘we have this far, now all I can do is my finest and be happy with the group regardless’. Then all of it occurred and I really feel prefer it’s as a result of I felt so chilled and I used to be within the second.”
‘We’re all like our personal superstars’
This isn’t Hills’ first rodeo in getting ready a group for the WSL. She earned promotion with Tottenham in 2019 and has steadily constructed in the direction of this precise second with Charlton.
“Issues seems to be very completely different from the place we have been 5 years in the past to the place we at the moment are, which is an efficient factor for the ladies’s recreation,” Hills stated.
“Whenever you’re a brand new group [in the WSL], you have to attempt to keep in there. That’s your predominant focus, so all of your effort and a spotlight goes into every a kind of league video games as a lot as doable.
“You take a look at a number of the groups which were in there for a very long time, they are going after the Champions League and the cups. There is a completely different strain on them, however our strain is we have to attempt to be as profitable and constant as we are able to to select up factors to attempt to ensure that we keep in. Then you definately go and construct once more and attempt to hold being progressive.
“Sadly, we’ve not received an open cheque e book that may go and purchase the most effective gamers on this planet, however generally I believe that is a great factor. I like that underdog really feel.
Karen Hills is a former Charlton participant and has beforehand received promotion to the WSL with Spurs
“I like that we’ll work actually onerous at each single level. We will get pleasure from it, however on the identical time, we additionally know that it will be an enormous problem, however we’re able to tackle the journey and run with it.”
Each Hills and Whitehouse are lifelike that this season will likely be a far greater problem than something they’ve confronted lately – however the goalkeeper has pinpointed what might hold Charlton within the league.
“We thrive after we’re the underdogs,” she added. “There’s already discuss that we’ll most likely wrestle, however we’re a strong group that works actually onerous for one another and defends very well.
“Different groups which were high of the WSL2 have been ball-playing groups who come as much as the WSL and assume ‘we are able to play simply in addition to Man Metropolis’, however we’re being lifelike.
“We all know we do not essentially have unbelievable superstars, however all of us work actually onerous and I believe that is what is going on to maintain us within the league. We’re all like our personal superstars.”
Watch Charlton vs Liverpool stay on Sky Sports activities+ from 1.55pm, kick-off 2pm. Comply with throughout Sky Sports activities digital platforms and watch in-game clips and free match highlights shortly after full-time.