EXCLUSIVE: Moneyfields goalkeeper Hannah Haughton on international return and why she left Portsmouth | OneFootball

Hannah Haughton is ready for a big match this weekend. Moneyfields – on top of the FA Women’s National League Division One South West – travel to second-placed Swindon Town.

And the goalkeeper is raring to go.

She signed for the club only in the summer, but tells SheKicks.net: “I just feel like I’ve been there ages now.”

It came after she left Portsmouth, the club she supports and the place she had spent almost seven years, helping them to promotion to what is now WSL2. She is happy to admit it was a tough decision – and not one she wanted to take.

“Honestly, probably the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life,” she says. “As cringy as it sounds, I was heartbroken.

“I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. And Jay [Sadler, Portsmouth head coach] won’t mind me saying – I can’t afford it. I’m a proper adult. And the women’s wage, unless I had two jobs, would put me in a minus every month and we weren’t allowed two jobs come the second year of being in the Championship, so I didn’t really have a choice.”

Haughton’s shoulder injury

It meant a step down to Tier 4, and focusing on her day job as a PE lead in a primary school; last season she had been part-time in teaching alongside her football.

The departure was all the more painful because she only got the chance to play three games with Pompey in the second tier due to sustaining a serious shoulder injury last year, falling on it during a game, and then suffering recurring issues.

She had major shoulder reconstruction and stability surgery, meaning a rehab period of around eight months – and she did not return to full training until the day after the season finished.

It’s one of the reasons she says she “can’t speak highly enough” of Moneyfields and manager Karl Watson – for giving her a chance.

“Being signed off [as fit] is one thing, but actually playing is another,” she says.

Hannah Haughton: The Moneyfields squad are a brilliant bunch

And she’s adapting well to a new club and a new way of doing things.

“I wouldn’t lie, the transition’s been tough at times, when you’re so used to one style of play for so long and then it’s different. I find myself now still trying to do what I’ve been used to, but that’s not how we play.

“But that’s what training is for, and knowing the girls, and I can’t speak higher of them. I think they’re a brilliant bunch and I think the coaches are spot on as well.” 

And one other interesting facet of Haughton’s career is her England career – in beach football. She came to it from a one-off futsal game, after which she was invited to join the national team for the beach discipline.

“I turned up with boots and shin pads and then I was mortified to know it was bare feet!” she recalls. “Really random way to get into it, but I absolutely love it.

“And that’s one good thing about not being pro – is that I can actually play it again now!”