CHARLTON Athletic goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse helped her side win promotion to the Women’s Super League with four penalty shootout saves against Leicester City – despite having her ‘cheatsheet’ water bottle flung into the stand.
Karen Hills’ side defeated, and relegated, the Foxes 2-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw following extra-time in front of a record Valley crowd of 3,979 for a women’s game.
Whitehouse, 29, made her fourth and deciding save from Noemie Mouchon to send Charlton into the WSL for the first time.
Charlton’s Katie Lockwood hit the crossbar in extra-time and Lucia Lobago was flagged offside after heading in the rebound.
Whitehouse had denied Shannon O’Brien just before half-time in normal time and she ensured it would go to extra-time when she saved from substitute Ashleigh Neville’s header at the back post.
Whitehouse had pictures of her opponents’ previous penalties on her water bottle, and she denied Emily van Egmand, O’Brien and Heather Payne.
Amalie Thestrup and Ellie Mason scored from the spot for the hosts, while Olivia Loughlin scored Leicester’s only penalty.
Leicester goalkeeper Katie Keane appeared to throw Whitehouse’s bottle into the Jimmy Seed Stand midway through the shootout.
But that didn’t stop scenes of jubilation among home supporters, with Hills in tears, after Whitehouse denied Mouchon.
Charlton had finished third in the WSL 2 and faced a Foxes side that had finished last in the WSL. With the top flight expanded from twelve to fourteen teams from next season, Charlton claimed the final place.
The famous ‘cheatsheet’. Photos: Keith Gillard
“That was like the best feeling ever to make those saves in that game and do what I needed for the team,” Whitehouse said.
“For some reason my bottle disappeared. I don’t know where it went, but I guess you can guess,” Whitehouse added. “Luckily, there was someone behind the stands who scrambled to grab it and gave it back to me, and maybe I had some information that helped me in this moment.”
Hills led Tottenham Hotspur into the WSL in 2017.
“It means everything to the fans, the club, and the owners. It’s just a remarkable moment in the club’s history, and something that every single person involved in Charlton should be incredibly proud of,” Hills said.
Charlton were disbanded in 2007 following the men’s side’s relegation from the Premier League, before being reformed later in the same summer under new management.
The win over the Foxes completes a remarkable rise from the National League’s Southern Division.
Hills knows her side will be competing against vast budgets in the WSL next season.
“I’m excited, nervous and apprehensive because I’ve done it before. It’s tough,” Hills said.
“We have the best league in the world with some of the best players in the world. We have to be realistic and honest.
“We are a very progressive club. I was here as a player when we were a top team so that is my ambition again. Football doesn’t stand still so we have to stay with it.”
Meanwhile, Rick Passmoor’s Foxes have been relegated after five seasons in the top flight.
It completes a miserable season for football in Leicester, after the men’s side were relegated to League One ten years after winning the Premier League title.
“The fans are fully endorsing what Leicester are doing with the women’s team,” Passmoor said.
“They want to be entertained – of course they do – but I want to tell them that the work the staff do behind the scenes is relentless.
“We don’t know what impact [relegation] will have but I’d like to thank the fans.”
Charlton: Whitehouse; Fitzgerald, Skeels, Lobato, Mason; Muya (Ross 79), Bradley, Kenney, McAteer (Lockwood 80), Hutton (Humphrey 90+8), Bissell (Thestrup 68).
Leicester City: Keane; Jansson (Payne 91), Kees (Swaby 88), Thibaud, Mayling (Mouchon 111), Tierney, McLoughlin, Ale (Williams 55), Rantala (Neville 55), Cain (van Egmond 55), O’Brien.
Attendance: 3,979 (556 away)
Referee: Emily Heaslip