Man Utd’s Grace Clinton bullish ahead of FA Cup final: ‘Chelsea aren’t invincible’

Grace Clinton’s first experience of a Women’s FA Cup final as a player last year was a memorable one. Just not in the way she would have hoped.

On loan at Tottenham for the season, Clinton had played an invaluable role in helping guide Robert Vilaham’s side to the competition’s final for the first time in the club’s history.

A day out at Wembley should have been the reward for a fine season which had also seen the midfielder deservedly named PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year. 

But with her parent club, Manchester United, also getting through to the final, Clinton was instead condemned to a seat in the stands, cup-tied and confused as she watched Tottenham fall to a 4-0 defeat.

‘It was such a bizarre feeling, just weird,’ she reflects to Metro. ‘I’d worked all season long to get to the final with Tottenham to try and create this opportunity to do something special at a club that doesn’t get to those finals so often. To then just sit in the stands and watch it play out was hard to swallow.

‘But I also had all my friends and people that I’ve grown up with winning the trophy with United. I’ve never felt anything like it – it was frustration, it was happiness, it was disappointment. All of those things at once.’

Returning to United last summer, the 22-year-old has put that disappointment behind her and continued her remarkable rise at both club and international level. Deployed in the heart of Marc Skinner’s midfield, Clinton scored an impressive eight times in 21 WSL games to help United finish third and qualify for the Women’s Champions League.

A well-taken header against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals also helped punch the defending champions’ return ticket to Wembley. Thankfully for Clinton, there will be no watching from the stands this time around.

‘It’s been a big season for me. Obviously, coming back from Tottenham, there was an expectation to be able to deliver the same performances,’ she said. 

‘I’ve enjoyed that challenge, but I’m also still learning so much every game around an amazing group. Reaching the Champions League and another FA Cup final is amazing and our levels have been so high.

‘Every game feels like a cup final when you’re at the top of the table and competing for those places, but Wembley is a really special way to end the season.’

But while United will return to Wembley on Sunday as the defending champion, they will also go into the match as heavy underdogs up against five-time champions Chelsea.

Sonia Bompastor’s side are eyeing up a famous domestic treble, having already won the WSL title and League Cup. The Blues ended the league season unbeaten and have only lost twice all season when they became unstuck in their Champions League semi-final with Barcelona.

Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over United at the end of April was the win that secured them the title, but Clinton insisted the manner of her side’s performance on the night has only buoyed their hopes of pulling off an upset this time around.

‘Everyone knows how good Chelsea are and can be,’ she admits. ‘They’ve won six titles in a row for a reason, but I feel like it was good that we played them a couple of weeks ago.

‘It felt like we were the better team and that gave us a lot of confidence to know that we should have beaten them. 

‘The magic of the cup is that it’s just one game, 90 minutes, and I feel like we’re in a really good place at the moment. Chelsea are unbeaten, but they’re not invincible and I believe in the squad that we’ve got.’

Such confidence is indicative of a young sportswoman who has taken everything about her rapid rise firmly in her stride. 

It’s perhaps also why, only days out from her latest trip to Wembley, Clinton makes the trip down to London to help kick off the first McDonald’s all-girls Fun Football Day at Hanwell Town FC, still aware of how important her presence can be in helping more young girls into the sport.

‘When I was younger, I played on boys’ teams until I joined an academy,’ she added. ‘It’s why events like this are so important. It’s nice for it to be all girls and to encourage them to play because when I was younger, I didn’t have access to that.’

It could yet be a big summer for Clinton, still. A key part of Sarina Wiegman’s England squad over recent international breaks, she will no doubt play her role in a Lionesses squad that has its eyes set on retaining the European Championship in Switzerland this summer.

Such an opportunity has arrived quickly at Clinton’s door, but one gets the sense it would take far more than a maiden international tournament on foreign soil to faze this impressive young footballer.

‘The biggest thing for me is to be excited by the challenges ahead,’ she ended. ‘Whether it’s United at Wembley or England at the Euros, every game just gets me excited.’

Grace Clinton kicked off the first McDonald’s all girls Fun Football Day in preparation for a big summer of women’s football. With up to 300,000 hours of free football coaching sessions to be provided to kids this summer across the UK. Get involved in a session near you and sign up at www.mcdonalds.co.uk/football

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