By Rachel Cohen
8th January 2026
Many of us have not known a Spurs Women side in which Ashleigh Neville was not integral. The West Bromwich-born (and Midlands-based) full-back initially joined Tottenham in 2017 and has been ever-present throughout the club’s tenure in the Championship (now WSL2) and WSL. She has played 192 games and scored 16 goals. At her imperious best, Neville was unplayable, and in February 2022 she became the first Spurs player to win a Barclays WSL Player of the Month award.
Neville – or Super Ashleigh Neville as she is known on the terraces – has been the beating heart of Tottenham’s women’s team; her individual journey closely mirroring that of the club. She worked in a primary school and played non-professional Tier 3 football for Coventry City (latterly United), competing against Spurs before joining the club in 2017, aged 24, after they narrowly beat out Coventry for promotion to the second tier. In 2018/19 Neville played a pivotal role in Spurs gaining promotion to the WSL and, in future seasons, the team’s consolidation of top tier status.
But if Neville’s journey within the professionalising women’s game resonates, for many supporters her relative lack of recognition also feels emblematically ‘Spurs’ – persistently failing to get an England call-up even during periods when she was arguably the standout English player in her position.
My first season ticket for Spurs Women was in 2021 and Neville was the first Spurs player to excite me – and the first player about whom I wrote on this blog. At that time, with Rehanne Skinner at the helm, Spurs played defensive, battling but (initially) effective football. And then less effective and still battling football. But Neville provided the spark. Her runs down the right in front of the stands at the Hive and latterly Brisbane Road, were electric. The sliding tackles; the times she carried the ball halfway up the pitch, leaping over opposition players’ outstretched legs; the backheels and tricksy carries – these moments elevated the experience of watching an otherwise largely mediocre team.
It was never about being a show pony. The tackles were crucial in breaking up play and creating transitions. Neville’s backheeled pass to Drew Spence produced a goal against Brighton. The previous year she won a tackle on the ground, and then somehow rebounded off the floor, continued her run and crossed the ball for Kyah Simon to score. There were the occasional headed goals. And much more frequent headed goal-line clearances. And that astounding lobbed goal from nearly the halfway line – ironically against Leicester and from an Asmita Ale throw in – for which she won WSL Goal of the Month.
And there were those times – so many – when the team were visibly exhausted but Neville seemed determined that she was going to single-handedly make something happen. And watching from the stands, I willed the ball to be passed to her, believing that by some combination of force of will and technical skill she would change the course of the game.
Other players in the team repeatedly talk about Neville being ‘mum’. Jessica Naz has regularly mentioned the support she has received from her longtime team-mate. And while managers have sometimes expressed qualms about how Neville trains (Robert Vilahamn openly criticised her for this) they have also relied on her on the pitch – and she has been a near-ever-present starter under five managerial teams.
Moreover, year after year Neville’s underlying statistics have been stellar. For instance, for the past four seasons Neville made more tackles than any other WSL player. She also won more tackles than anyone else in three of those four years. And last season she made more interceptions than any other WSL player.
| Times in the WSL Top Ten across 7 seasons | Times in Top Spot (or 2nd place) | |
| Tackles | 6 | 4 (1) |
| Tackles won | 6 | 3 (1) |
| Dribblers tackled | 7 | 2 (3) |
| Interceptions | 4 | 2 (2) |
| Blocks | 4 | 1 (1) |
| % Aerials Won | 2 | 0 (1) |
As the table above shows, Neville has frequently been league-leading across a range of defensive actions. In addition, there have been seasons, when her role in the team (brief periods as a winger or a team set up to use her more as a wingback) has permitted Neville to unleash her attacking verve, and she has featured in the league’s top ten for a variety of attacking actions (passes into the penalty area; crosses into the penalty area; touches; successful take-ons). During her time at Spurs we have also seen her evolve as a player – for instance, developing her passing game under Robert Vilahamn and then Martin Ho.
This season, under Ho, Neville was initially used as the more defensive fullback in a lopsided system (with Amanda Nildén the left sided fullback played more progressively). But in the last few games of 2025 Neville seemed to have been given more freedom to press, and win the ball, higher up the pitch and to attack, culminating in a crossed assist in Spurs’ final WSL game pre-break. Ho’s system can, however, leave fullbacks exposed – especially where cover from players on the wings is insufficient. And in both December games against Manchester United, with Martha Thomas in front of her (in place of the injured Jessica Naz) – and against players of the calibre of Melvine Malard and Fridolina Rolfö – there were times when Neville struggled.
Nonetheless, the FBRef Scouting Report, which compares Neville to other fullbacks, illustrates how remarkable her defensive game remains today. She is placed in the 97th to 99th percentiles across a range of categories. This report also highlights where Neville is less strong – that she commits more errors than other players. This is, however, at least in part related to her style of play and unending willingness to make challenges – some of which she inevitably loses. It is also related to the system which (as noted above) can expose fullbacks – Nildén’s statistics are similarly poor in terms of challenges lost and errors made.
In that context it is worth noting ex-manager, Vilahamn’s comments on Neville’s ability to bounce back from mistakes “I kind of like that even if she do a little bit of a mistake where they score a goal she just keeps going the whole game and just gets back to the game and [is] brilliant after that. …And when you have those role models for the other players, they just take after them and learn, it’s okay to do a mistake if you just keep going. And she’s the answer to that.”
Her ability to (often literally) pick herself up and keep playing is likely also the reason that Neville has not suffered the kinds of confidence dips that so many players go through and has – even in Spurs’ and her worst seasons – produced consistent performances, regularly ending the season as the club’s highest ranked player across various football data sites.
When Neville signed her last contract in 2022 she talked about Spurs being her club and where she wanted to retire. No doubt that was a genuine wish on her part. So we can only speculate that the thing that has derailed this plan is not a lack of will but that at 32, Neville feels able to continue performing at the level necessary not just to play but to regularly start games in the top flight.
At Spurs, Neville’s role has been complicated by the arrival and then injury to last season’s breakout star, right-back Ella Morris. Indeed, if we turn the clock back to spring of 2025, Neville’s playing time looked like it would reduce gradually with Morris claiming the right-back starting berth, leaving Neville and Nildén to compete for starts at left-back. Despite the managerial change in summer 2025, it is quite probable the pattern would have continued into this season had Morris not suffered an ACL in May.
Instead, in Morris’s absence Neville (having recovered from an early season injury) again became the preferred starter at right-back, with Nildén at left-back – and Charli Grant and Josefine Rybrink consigned to backup status. But with Spurs’ surprisingly good start to 2025/6 the club’s ambitions have risen – possibly loosening purse-strings. This has produced (so far) five January signings, aimed at deepening the squad and making it better able to compete in the back-end of the season (Spurs have in previous seasons been poor post-Christmas). As part of this we have seen the arrival of two highly rated young fullbacks: Hanna Wijk and Julie Blakstad. With both in place and Morris likely to return in the Spring, Neville’s competition for minutes would only get fiercer.
In this context it is not surprising that she is willing to consider a move. And Leicester is a team full of familiar faces (with both Ale and Rosella Ayane currently playing at the King Power).
For all that, it is going to be hard to say goodbye to such an iconic player. I loved that ‘Ash’ played for Spurs, and loved the anticipatory excitement that came every time she took the ball and cut inside. I also loved her story, her relatively late emergence and unconventional path to elite level. I loved that she spoke out proudly about her wife and three children and was an active supporter of Spurs’ LGBTQ+ group Proud Lilywhites. I loved how generous she always is with supporters, celebrating the successes but not shying away in the bad times. For instance, it was Neville who came to talk with the small group of travelling supporters after Spurs’ worst WSL loss ever – a soul-destroying late night 7-0 defeat away at Manchester City.
And, let’s talk about it – I loved her haircut. In a league suffused with blonde ponytails Neville’s commitment to her unique jet-black crop meant she was repeatedly subjected to sexist ridicule by the ever-present contingent of women’s football deriders, but it made her instantly recognisable to supporters and meant that even ill-informed WSL commentators found it hard to mis-identify her. Indeed Neville’s hair reflected the quiet individuality that marked every moment of her time at Spurs.
I understand the reasons – her’s and the club’s – why Neville might leave Spurs (game-time; the logistics of the commute; the manager’s desire to focus on developing younger players; the opportunity to get a fee for a player still under contract). But a Spurs team without Super Ash is going to feel a little alien and, even as we welcome new and exciting young stars, something will be lost. And the football might be that little bit less unpredictable – for good and ill.
See the club’s official announcement: https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2026/january/women-neville-departs-for-leicester-city/
Previous posts relating to Ash can be found here.
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