Harbourton Athletic Women will play in front of a sold-out Dockside stadium on Sunday, after all 14,000 tickets for their cup tie were snapped up in less than a week.

It will be the largest crowd ever to watch a women's football match in the city, and the first time the team has played a competitive game at the club's main ground.

For a squad that, just two years ago, played most of its home games on an artificial pitch at a secondary school on the edge of the city, it is a moment several players describe as "surreal."

"I remember counting the crowd once," said captain Jess Morrow, who has played for the club since she was sixteen. "I got to 212. On Sunday there'll be more people in one stand than came to all our games in my first season put together."

A rapid rise

Athletic's women have risen through two divisions in three seasons, playing an attacking style of football that has made them one of the most watched teams in their league. Average home attendances have grown from a few hundred to several thousand since the club moved their league fixtures to a larger community stadium last year.

That growth, the club says, persuaded it to stage Sunday's cup tie at the Dockside, where the men's team plays. When tickets went on general sale last Monday, the club's website struggled under the demand. By Friday afternoon, every seat was gone.

"Honestly, we thought we might get eight or nine thousand," said the club's head of women's football. "We would have been delighted with that. Fourteen thousand in five days tells you everything about how this city feels about this team."

"On Sunday there'll be more people in one stand than came to all our games in my first season put together." — Jess Morrow, captain

The opposition

Sunday's opponents are a full-time professional side from the division above, and the bookmakers make them clear favourites. Athletic's players combine football with jobs and studies: the squad includes a physiotherapist, two teachers, a trainee accountant and several university students.

Manager Rob Atherton, a former Athletic player himself, insists his team won't be overawed.

"We'll respect them, because they're a very good side," he said. "But we've been underdogs at every step of this journey, and we've done all right so far. The crowd will be worth a goal to us. Maybe two."

The players' story

For many in the squad, the match is a reminder of how far women's football has come. Several players grew up at a time when there were few girls' teams in the area and almost no route into the professional game.

Morrow played in boys' teams until she was eleven, because there was no girls' side within an hour's drive. Striker Amina Bello, the team's top scorer this season, first played football in her school playground in Westbrook and was spotted by a coach running a free Saturday morning session in a local park.

"That session changed my life," Bello said. "There was a woman coaching it. I'd never seen a woman coach before. I didn't know it was something you could do. Now there are girls in that same park every weekend, and half of them have our shirts on."

A wider impact

The club says it has seen a sharp increase in girls signing up for its community programmes over the past year, and has added new age-group teams to meet demand. Local schools report similar trends.

The council's cabinet member for leisure said the sell-out was "a fantastic moment for the whole city" and confirmed that the council was working with the club on plans to improve facilities for girls' and women's football at several community pitches.

There are still challenges. Players and coaches point out that funding, facilities and media coverage for women's football remain far below those for the men's game at a similar level, and that many players continue to juggle full-time work with training.

"A sell-out is brilliant," said Atherton. "But what matters is what happens next. We want this to be normal, not a one-off."

Matchday information

  • Kick-off: Sunday, 2pm. Gates open at 12.30pm.
  • Getting there: Extra buses will run from the city centre from noon. Parking around the Dockside is very limited.
  • Fan zone: Quayside Square will host a free fan zone with music, food stalls and a big screen from 11am, for those without tickets.
  • Coverage: Callum Reid will be reporting live from the Dockside. Full match report and reaction on The Wire on Sunday evening.

As for Morrow, she has one ambition for the day beyond the result.

"I want to look up at the end, wherever we are, whatever the score, and just take it in," she said. "We've waited a long time for this."