Throughout her 17-year profession, Gilly Flaherty established herself as certainly one of her era’s greatest defenders, a commanding centre-back who helped Arsenal win the quadruple in her first season.
The trophies saved coming all through her profession, with spells at Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool coming after her ten-year affiliation with the Gunners got here to an finish in 2013. Flaherty – who FourFourTwo ranked at no. 98 in our listing of the highest 100 girls’s footballers of all-time – would win 22 trophies throughout her profession, and 9 caps for the Lionesses on the way in which.
After hanging up her boots in 2023, Flaherty has moved into the media as a pundit and has seemed again on the video games that modified her life with FourFourTwo .
The video games that modified Gilly Flaherty’s life
Gilly Flaherty in motion for West Ham towards her former aspect Arsenal
Arsenal 3-0 Birmingham
League Cup, 2006
“My senior debut for Arsenal as a 15-year-old, approaching within the League Cup towards Birmingham. I keep in mind pondering, ‘No matter you do, don’t give the ball away’. This was my introduction to senior soccer and it holds plenty of particular recollections – my household was there to observe.
Most individuals would anticipate me to decide on the sport wherein I scored the primary WSL purpose, however I haven’t. That is the sport the place it began for me. With out it, I couldn’t have gone on to expertise the issues I did later in my profession. It’s going to all the time be a really big day for me. It looks like a complete lifetime in the past now.”
Flaherty (high row, third from proper) together with her Arsenal team-mates forward of the 2007/08 season (Picture credit score: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photos)
Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland
FA Cup Ultimate, 2009
“Beating Sunderland to raise the FA Cup is a recreation that stands out greater than most. I had been on the bench rather a lot, however when Faye White and our different beginning centre-backs obtained injured, I had a run within the aspect. It got here to the FA Cup last, and Faye returned simply in time. I assumed, ‘I’m going to lose my spot right here’.
“I anticipated Faye to return in and take again her spot as she was membership captain, however Vic Akers trusted me and caught with me. I had been concerned in earlier FA Cup finals on the bench for Arsenal, however this was my first begin for them in a last. To go on and win the match 2-1 was the icing on the cake.”
Chelsea 1-0 Notts County
FA Cup Ultimate, 2015
“This was the primary Ladies’s FA Cup last to be performed at Wembley. It wasn’t the prettiest, however it was Chelsea’s first ever FA Cup triumph – so particular. Enjoying at Wembley was enormous for us as a membership. It’s such an iconic venue and I had all the time liked the FA Cup since I used to be little. I keep in mind being in Arsenal’s youth groups, watching as a fan on BBC Two, when Julie Fleeting scored a hat-trick within the 2004 last. Quick-forward to 2015, that match was additionally televised and performed on the predominant stadium. It was the sport you sit up for as a participant, that chance to get on TV and stroll out at Wembley.”
Gilly Flaherty in the course of the Ladies’s FA Cup last towards Manchester Metropolis in 2019 (Picture credit score: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Getty Photos)
Manchester Metropolis 3-0 West Ham FA Cup Ultimate, 2019
“For West Ham to achieve the FA Cup last in our first yr as knowledgeable membership was enormous. I’d additionally received the FA Cup the yr earlier than with Chelsea, however as an unused substitute. I knew I used to be leaving Chelsea on the finish of that season and all I needed to do was hit 100 membership appearances – to take action, I knew I needed to come on within the last. I keep in mind sitting within the bar afterwards and telling my household, ‘I’m going to return again to Wembley with my new membership. And never solely that, however I’m going to guide them out’. The subsequent yr, I stood there on the entrance of the tunnel and thought, ‘How mad is it that I known as this?’”
