"Do you want me to grab her stuff for you" I offer to Beth knowing that she couldn't carry everything
"Yes please, I'm not going to wake her up I'll just take her to mine and Lotte's room for the night"
"Ok I'll bring it up and walk with you then"
" I'll grab your stuff as well Beth '' Leah says, reaching up to grab Rosie's bag passing it to me as I walk off the bus, Beth closely following me with Rosie wrapped around her like a koala.
Sitting in the changing room is hell. With the women's game becoming as popular as it has done over the last few years the crowds are just getting bigger. It's alright when we are at Meadow Park and there's only a few thousand but this is a sold out stadium with over 30,000 people in it. The crowd is noisy. The horns are going off. You can hear all sorts of different chants going around the stadium.
I'm sitting in my cubby knees up to my chest head down, trying not to focus on the noise that is overwhelming my brain. I knew it would be loud but not this loud. I can hear my chant going around the stadium now
*gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, a Rosie from up north, number 26, and she plays up the front (like the song from ABBA)*
I can also hear the sound of the girls' boots walking round the changing rooms, almost getting ready to go and warm up. I can hear a pair of boots getting closer to my cubby and I feel someone crouch down in front of me and list my head up. It's Leah, I also notice that it's only us and Beth in the changing rooms now.
"Hey, Roro, what's wrong?" Leah says to me, "I just look at her not being able to communicate my problem "Is it too loud?" I nod at this looking back down to the floor. I see Leah's body move and Beth comes to sit next to me, she pulls me onto her lap and into her chest covering my ears, slightly rocking me back and forth.
After a few minutes I see Leah walking back in the changing room, this time Sarina behind her walking towards me.
"Hey Ro," I hear Leah say ", I spoke to Sarina and she said we could get you some ear plugs for when you get subbed in, during the match and we can also sort you with some ear defenders for the warm up and when you're sitting on the bench"
I just nod at this playing with the end of Beth's warm up t-shirt.
"Should you and I go and get them then Ro?" Beth asks lifting my head up to meet her eyes
"Ok" I say in a quiet voice, now able to communicate without feeling as overstimulated. I stand up holding tightly onto Beth's hand walking next to her. We walk into a room I didn't even notice was there on the way in and meet with Danielle, one of the staff members, she looks up from her desk and goes into her drawer. She pulls out a pack of earbuds and some ear defenders for me and holds them out.
"There you go my love" She says to me as Beth takes them out of her hand.
"Thank you Danielle" Beth says, shoving the pack of earbuds into her pocket. She nudges me slightly to get my attention.
"Thank you" I say, still quiet but louder than the last time I spoke. She smiled up at us
Leah's POV
The changing room before any match, the atmosphere is always different. From singing and dancing whilst getting ready, to everyone silent the only thing you can hear is the sound of our boots on the floor.
Today was a mixture, Millie and Rach were singing and dancing around the changing room to a variety of songs. Most of the girls were singing along, Mary even joined them dancing around. Until David came in to tell us that it was time to go and warm up for the game that was to come.
Walking out the changing room I notice Rosie sat in her cubby, knees up to her chest and head in between her legs. I quickly grabbed Beth's hand signalling for her to stay behind with me.
"What?" She asks, I subtly point to where Rosie is sitting as the last of the squad leaves the changing room. We both stay behind as the last of the squad leaves to go and get warmed up. I motion for Beth to stay back a bit as I walk towards Rosie. Crouching down in front of her lifting her head up to meet my eyes.
"Hey Roro what's wrong?" She just looks up at me with tears in her eyes, not able to communicate. It's times like these when I remember she's just a little girl, she isn't used to all this, all she wants to do is play football and she has that but she also has all of this pressure on her to do well. If she doesn't do well she gets abused online because she's 'taking someone's place' in the squad. That's not true she earned her spot, and she worked pretty darn hard to get it. All of our supporters believe in her though, it's our opponents that are the worst, sometimes they get the better of her but sometimes she just doesn't care.
I think for a few seconds and see Beth in the corner of my eyes pointing to her ears like a crazy woman. What is she doing? I get it now "Is it too loud?" She just looks back down at the floor signalling to me that I was correct, well Beth was.
I stand up and signal to Beth to stay with Rosie, as I go to find Sarina. I bump into Sabrina D'Angelo, one of my arsenal teammates.
"Hey, are you ok?" She asks,
"Yeah, yeah i'm fine, have you seen Sarina anywhere" I reply smiling at her
"Yeah, she just went into the room at the end of the corridor."
"Ok thanks a lot, good luck by the way"
"Thanks, good luck to you too" She says back to me as I speed off down the corridor trying to get to Sarina before she was bombarded before the game.
Knock knock
"Who is it?" Sarina shouts through the door, obviously trying to hide from all of the training staff
"It's Leah" I say opening the door
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out warming up?" She says her eyebrows furrowed in confusion
"Yeah, I should but i just had a favour to ask"
"Go on then"
"Well, as you know Rosie is, how do i say it, on the spectrum. And I was wondering, because it's too loud for her to concentrate and everything, if we could sort something out for her. Like we do at Arsenal where she has her earplugs for games, then ear defenders for when she's sat on the bench."
"Yeah, I know where you're coming from, and of course. If you want, I think Danielle has earplugs and we might be able to find some ear defenders. And i will go and speak to the referee"
"Thank you so much Sarina"
"It's alright, anything for Rosie" She says as we both stand up and walk out of the room Sarina going to talk to the refs and me on my way to ask Danielle where the ear defenders were.
Once I had everything sorted, I went back and met with Sarina outside the changing rooms where I presumed that Beth and Rosie were still in.
"I've got it sorted with the referees and she can also warm up with her ear defenders on"
"Ok, thank you so much again"
"Stop thanking me i would do anything for that little girl"
"I know, we all would" I say finally walking into the room.
After I had explained to her what was going to happen, she and Beth made their way to Danielle. I decided that I would join the rest of the team in warm ups as I knew they wouldn't be that long after me. I walk out of the tunnel and hear my chant being shouted across the whole of the stadium
*she's one of our own, she's one of our own, Leah Williamson she's one of our own*
As i jog up to where the girls were doing shooting practice everyone bombards me with questions about why we didn't go out with the rest of the team
"What happened?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Are you ok?"
"Where's Beth and Rosie?"
"Beth and Rosie are fine, so am I and it's none of your business that's up to Rosie if she wants to tell you" I reply, shoving the girls to go back into training. A few minutes later and Rosie and Beth join us, Rosie still attached to Beth's side not wanting to let go.
*start of the game*
'And there off, we see a good line up from both teams tonight, newest addition to the lionesses, Rosie Roberts starting on the bench. There is a rumour going around that she will be brought on for her senior debut today, but we will just have to wait and see'
'A slow start for both teams today, we expected that from the Canadian team but not from the English'
*19th min* 'WOW, what a goal that was from number 16 for Canada, England are not going to be happy about this'
*22nd min* 'And it's Bright on the ball, she makes her way up the pitch, passing back to Walsh, into the box, and back to Bright. AND SHE SCORES, what a screamer from Millie Bright absolutely phenomenal player, what a goal'
*42nd min* 'And it's Beckie on the ball, it's still inside, she makes the run herself. OOH what a goal from Janine Beckie, it's not going to be good going into the next half for the lionesses'
*half time* 'And it's half time England-1 Canada-2'
'It looks like we're seeing a change in Both sides today. For Canada Riviere, Rose, Huitema and Grosso came off with Prince, Lacasse, Pickett and Quinn replacing them. On the England side we have Hemp Russo and Kirby coming off with White, Mead and making her first ever senior England debut Rosie Roberts. As you can see Rosie has gone for her nickname, we think, 'Roro' on the back of her shirt like she does at her club Arsenal. It's an incredible achievement for the 15 year old and she should be very proud to have gotten this far.'
*60th min* ' Another substitution for England with Greenwood, Toone and Daly coming off and Carter, Bronze and Nobbs coming on.'
*61st min* 'And its Bronze with the ball, straight to Williamson, to Mead she makes the run into the box with her fellow arsenal teammate, Rosie, will she pass or will she shoot. She decides to pass, it's still inside, and she goes for it, WHAT A GOAL ROSIE for England 40m away from the goal. To shoot a goal like that is insane, and on her debut as well, what an amazing little girl.'
*68th min* 'And the referee is blowing her whistle, there seems to be something wrong with the young girl from England, Williamson and Mead the first by her side, closely followed by Nobbs. And it looks like it's just a cramp as Ellen White goes over to help stretch her leg out. The England skipper talking with the ref.'
*70th min* 'And she's back up,we can hear her chant going around the stadium with all the fans rooting for the girl, now there will definitely be some added time on this game.'
*85th minute* '5 minutes to go and its ties 2-2'
*90min +1* 'And it's Rosie with the ball, just about onside the flag hasn't gone up, she makes the run, she's now one on one with the keeper, and she hits it. AND ITS IN, just as the final whistle blows. What a game, especially for the young lioness, she should be proud of herself.'