A survey for supporters of Spurs Women was run online. This blog summarises supporters’ responses to a set of questions about the season we have just finished, players, games and what went wrong.

Part 2 will follow and will unpick detailed and interesting responses about supporters’ hopes for next year, including new signings, and about their experiences as supporters of Spurs Women.

Who answered?

There were responses from 79 people. This is not representative of the hundreds or thousands of people who watch Spurs Women, not least because the survey was only advertised on Twitter and so will have had a limited audience. So the findings discussed here are just for fun. And because it is interesting to see what other supporters are thinking.

Of those who responded 41 percent were season ticket holders, and another 22 percent regularly attended games. So most of the supporters who answered have seen quite a lot of Spurs Women live in 2022/3. Just over a quarter of respondents, however, solely watched the team on TV or online.

Chart 1: Survey Respondents – What type of supporter are they?

Scoring Spurs players

Supporters were asked to score all of Spurs players who had played 200 minutes or more between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest.

The following chart shows the scores that were received by each player. They are ordered by mean from high to low so Bethany England is at the top because her average score was the highest.

Unsurprisingly England, who has scored 12 times since joining Spurs in January, received a lot of 5/5 scores (almost 85 percent of supporters gave this score), she also received no scores lower than a 3. Ashleigh Neville, who topped the table last year, came second this, with over 70 percent of people scoring her either a 5 or 4. The same was true of Eveliina Summanen whose recent goals have likely increased her popularity among supporters.

In addition, Molly Bartrip, Celin Bizet and Tinni Korpela were all rated pretty highly – each getting scores of either 4 or 5/5 from over half of supporters.

Chart 2: Scoring Spurs Players out of five.

At the lower end four players were scored negatively (1s or 2s) by over half of those supporters who filled out the survey. These were Chioma Ubogagu, Cho So-hyun, Amy Turner and Angharad James. Those players, along with Asmita Ale and Jessica Naz, were the only in the squad not to be scored at a 5/5 by any respondents.

It should be noted that most of the responses to this survey came before the game against Reading, and all came before the final game against West Ham. So the impact of any players who did especially well or poorly in those two games may not be factored in here. Likewise, players who had their best periods earlier in the season (Asmita Ale, Ashleigh Neville) may have been at a disadvantage.

In considering the scores, it is also worth noting that some players had very little playing time. This includes Chioma Ubogagu, Kit Graham, Cho So-hyun and Nikola Karczewska, all of whom were on the pitch for fewer than 500 minutes in the WSL this season.

Finally, it is notable the relatively poor season contributed to overall scores that were typically lower this year than last year where players appeared in both years.

Who brought you joy this season?

Supporters were asked which player brought you most joy and two thirds of respondents replied Bethany England. The only other player to get over 10 percent of the vote was Ashleigh Neville, with 12 percent.

Chart 3: Which player brought you joy this season? (% responses)

Who was your unsung hero?

There were lots of players mentioned in answer to the question about who supporters thought was the team’s unsung hero – probably because there is not a lot of hype about any of our players and so most are pretty unsung! There were, however, only three players who got over 10 percent of the vote. Those were Molly Bartrip (12%), Celin Bizet (17%) and Eveliina Summanen, who topped the poll receiving over a quarter of all votes (26%).

Chart 4: Which player was your unsung hero this season? (% responses)

Who do you think has fancy footwork?

Asked about which player has the fanciest footwork the winner was Celin Bizet (39%) with a large number of votes for Drew Spence (16%) and Mana Iwabuchi (12%). Notably all three have joined Spurs since last summer, so we could say that despite a poor season we have more players with fancy footwork.

Chart 5: Which player do you think has the fanciest footwork? (% responses)

Who would you get to defend you in a fight?

There were three players who, between them, fans most often call on to defend them in a fight: Ashleigh Neville (16%), Bethany England (16%) and Eveliina Summanen (18%). Drew Spence also got 10% of the vote with both Molly Bartrip and Amy Turner getting a few votes.

Chart 6: Which player would you pick to defend you in a fight? (% responses)

Who has most often saved our bacon?

This was another big win for Beth England, with 78% of respondents picking her. This is not surprising since it is widely acknowledged that her goals are what has kept Spurs up. The only other player who was regularly identified was goalkeeper, Tinni Korpela (on 15%). This may be in part because quite a few responses came in after the away game at Manchester United at which Korpela was impressive.

Chart 7: Which player has most often saved our bacon this season? (% responses)

Who has gone the extra mile with fans?

Ashleigh Neville was the pick of half of all those supporters who answered a question about who has gone the extra mile with fans. The two other players who were picked regularly were captain, Shelina Zadorsky (18%) and Molly Bartrip (17%). Big thanks to those players especially – their work with fans is being noticed.

Chart 8: Which player has gone the extra mile with fans this season? (% responses)

Which young players are you excited about?

Supporters were asked which young player (24 and under) they were most excited to see develop at Spurs. This only included those on a senior contract who have played minutes with the first team (so not those who have been out on loan all season, nor academy players). The good news is that all those listed were picked by at least some supporters, suggesting that there is widespread positivity about our young players. The player who got easily the most votes was, however, Celin Bizet with 42% of people picking the Norwegian winger, who joined us last summer.

Chart 9: Which young player are you most excited to see develop at Spurs? (% responses)

Scoring the Manager

When the survey was set up Vicky Jepson had been in charge for 6 of the 8 final games of the season. Respondents were asked to score her management of the last part of the season out of 5 (with 5 being the highest).

Chart 10: Scores for Vicky Jepson’s management over the last part of the season

The majority of respondents scored Jepson’s period in charge as middling (a 3/5). No respondents gave her a 5 and almost none a 1. The proportion scoring her 2 versus 4 changed a little over the period that people were filling out the survey. Namely, almost half of those supporters who responded after the Reading home game scored Jepson at 4, as compared to only a couple who had responded before that game giving that score. Since that was the biggest highpoint in her management period it is not surprising that this changed the mood.

There were, however, no people who answered after the West Ham game and so it is not possible to see if that game has again changed supporters’ mood on this.

Favourite game of the season

When asked about their favourite game most supporters (58 percent) selected Brighton away, that 8-0 blow-out that in the end marked the last win for over five months. Almost a quarter chose the win that marked the end of Spurs’ losing streak – the 1-0 home victory over Leicester. Because the survey was set up and most people answered before Spurs played Reading at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it was not included as an option. However, of those people who responded after the game 35 percent chose ‘other’ and wrote in Reading.

Favourite Game
Brighton Away 8-0 (that score)		58%
Leicester at Home 1-0 (end of losing streak)	24%
Reading at Home*	8%
Liverpool at Home 1-0 (first home game/win)	6%
Villa home*	3%
Leicester Away*	1%
Total	100%

Low Point of the Season

There were quite a few low points – or at least an elongated period this season, but the most frequently chosen low point was Everton at home. The postponed game that happened in front of a crowd of about 100 in the ice during which there were numerous on-pitch mistakes, Ash got a red card and Jess got injured. The next most frequently selected match was our away game at Liverpool which resulted in Rehanne Skinner’s leaving the club. This was, however, a more split question than high-points, with quite a few people selecting the home losses to London clubs Arsenal and West Ham. The only answer that was written in by people in any number was the home loss to Manchester United and/or its aftermath – the suspension of Eveliina Summanen.

Low Point of the Season
Everton at Home 3-0 loss (Red card, injury and snow)	38%
Liverpool Away 2-1 loss (9th straight & Skinner was sacked)	25%
West Ham at home 2-0 loss (So many mistakes)	17%
Arsenal Home 5-1 (It’s them)	16%
Manchester United at home/Eveliina ban*	4%
Majority of season*	1%
Total	100%

What went wrong in 2022/23?

Most of us can admit that this season did not turn out the way we had hoped it would. Supporters were asked to pinpoint what went wrong in the 22/23 season. They were given a list of options to choose from but could select as many as they wished or write in additional things. The most chosen issue was ‘Injuries’, chosen by 77 percent of supporters. Given that this is largely outside of the control of anyone in the club it is clear that there is at least some blame being attributed to things that could not be controlled. Another thing outside of the hands of the club – bad luck – was chosen by almost 30 percent.

Chart 11: If you had to sum up what went wrong in 2022/23 what would you point to?

On the other hand, almost 70 percent of respondents pointed to ‘line-up and substitution decisions’ and over half selected ‘team formation’ as problems. A range of other tactical decisions were pointed out in open-text answers by another five percent who ticked ‘other’. Player recruitment was another problem identified by more than half of those who answered this question. In contrast, issues relating to individual players were selected but less often. This included: skills (chosen by 37%) desire (33%) and fitness (31%). A few people also wrote in comments about the (lack of) Board support at Spurs.

That is it for the Part 1 of the Spurs Women Supporter Supporter 2022-23 Survey. Part 2 will explore the upsides of being a Spurs Women supporter, as well as supporters thoughts about the future. It will follow soon.

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Thank you to all the people who took the time to respond to the survey.

If you have any questions, get in touch.

If you’re interested in comparing this year’s responses to responses from 2021-23, you can find those here:

• Part 1 2021-2: Player scores
• Part 2 2021-2: Player awards,
• Part 3 2021-2: Looking ahead

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Rachel Lara Cohen is on twitter @spurswomenblog