Bolton Wanderers Women have strengthened their midfield with the signing of Abbie Mackay.
The 24-year-old central defensive midfielder spent several seasons in Chorley’s first team. She now joins a Wanderers side that has won all ten of its games this season in all competitions and is pushing for promotion.
Mackay had planned to step away from football this season because of work. When the start date for her new job was pushed back, she found she couldn’t ignore what she was hearing about Wanderers.
“Last year I was at Chorley and a few of the girls had made the move across,” said Abbie. “I think Grace Vella was the first one and then quite a few more followed. I started coming to watch on Sundays and they were telling me how good the setup was.
“Molly Wood was very consistent in telling me to come down and try it. I was going to have a bit of time off from football this season with work, but when the start date got pushed back, I knew I wanted to get back playing and go again. With how highly they’d been speaking about it, it was something I had to think about.”
What Mackay found at the club surprised her. She says the backing for the women’s game across Bolton Wanderers, including from the men around the club, played a big part in her decision.
“It’s one of the first times I’ve been around a group of men who speak so highly about women’s football,” she said. “Even when I was just standing as a spectator, I could hear how positively they spoke about Bolton, the girls and how much they want to push the women’s game. It was refreshing and it was really appealing to me.
“Molly had spoken so highly about it, but I thought maybe she was just bigging it up. As soon as I saw it for myself, I thought, she’s not bigged it up enough. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was.”
Conversations with Head Coach Tom Cunniff settled it.
“You can tell when you want to play for a manager and when you want to run through a brick wall for them,” she added. “Once I was in and around the girls, had spoken to Tom and met the other coaches, it was a no-brainer.”
From Kendal to Wanderers
Mackay started out in Kendal, playing for a boys’ team, before moving to Preston at under-12 level and playing there until under-16 level. When she reached that age, there was no women’s team for her to step up into. Her manager at the time was starting up a reserve team at Chorley, the club’s first and Mackay joined at 16.
After two years in the reserves, she broke into the first team. She went on to play for them for several seasons before leaving Chorley last summer.
Composed aggression
Mackay describes herself as an aggressive player who loves winning the ball back and Wanderers’ style of play was another big reason she joined.
“I’d consider myself a hard working, composed aggressive player,” she said. “I like to win the ball back, and I think sometimes, the more physical the game is, the better I play.
“One thing that attracted me to Bolton was the philosophy and the style of football. It’s quite similar to how we were trying to play at Chorley last year, keeping the ball on the floor, moving it from side to side and being aggressive in both defence and attack. It’s an attractive style of football. It’s not just a big boot and get up, which I’ve experienced in the past. It’s the style of play I want to play.”
110 per cent
Mackay is clear that she only wanted to come back if she could commit to it fully.
“I don’t want to do anything half-heartedly,” she explained. “I knew if I was going to go back playing football, I’d give it 100 per cent, if not 110. I wanted to be involved in a team with high standards and I want to set them for myself, which obviously includes full commitment. It was something I was unsure I’d be able to do at first, but once I got into conversations here, I knew it was an opportunity worth making sacrifices for.”
She knows she will have to earn her place in a winning side and she relishes the challenge.
“It’s nice to be around an ambitious team,” she said. “The goal is to win the league and it’s nice to be in an environment that’s built for that, with a group of girls and coaches all pushing for it.
“The competition is very good. It pushes you in training and it’s only going to make us better as players. You can’t afford to become complacent or turn up feeling a bit tired and be off it. You have to put 100 per cent in every time and I’ve really been enjoying it.”
A squad on the same page
Cunniff’s squad blends experience with emerging talent. Abbie Brown, Lizzy Hamer-Brown, Grace Vella and Kayleigh McDonald play alongside young players such as Annabelle White and Poppy Wallis. Mackay came through Chorley as one of the youngest players and she now sits somewhere in between.
“I was talking to Tom about how, at Chorley, I was used to being one of the youngest players and how it’s interesting to be one of the middle-aged ones now,” she laughed. “He said if I’d come last year, I’d have been one of the oldest, even at 24!
“It’s nice to be around young players who want to develop and still have those high standards, alongside some more experienced players who you can learn from and are always willing to help. Despite the age differences, you wouldn’t know it because everyone gets on so well.
“Everyone talks about togetherness and it’s clear everyone’s on the same page here. Everyone’s singing from the same hymn sheet. They know what they want and they know what they need to do to get it. They’re a brilliant group of girls and a brilliant group of coaches.”
Mackay also praised the professionalism around the women’s team.
“I’ve spoken to my family and friends about how professional the setup is,” she said. “It’s a very exciting project and it’s very clear that hard work is going in on and off the pitch. I think they’re getting everything they deserve this season and that’s a real credit to the people involved at the club.”
Welcome to Bolton Wanderers, Abbie.