A lifelong City fan, Walsh has experienced some of the most dramatic moments in football with her childhood Club, and is now helping to carve such special moments on the pitch.
Having netted the winner in the late 1-0 win over Everton three weeks ago, the midfielder helped her side to another last-gasp triumph against Reading on Women’s Football Weekend, as Gareth Taylor‘s side moved top of the FA Women’s Super League with four games remaining.
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While it had looked to be a frustrating evening for the home side, despite a dominant performance, a piece of individual brilliance from Lauren Hemp finally unlocked the Royals’ defence, teeing up Chloe Kelly for the decisive moment on 87 minutes.
Although time had been running out, Walsh asserts her side always believed they could snatch the all-important goal - reflective of the indomitable spirit and famous motto associated with the Club.
“When we’ve got the front five we have, we always create something,” she stated. We have such good goalscorers in Georgia Stanway and Ellen White and we put trust in them.
“Even in the 90th minute, we’re always confident we’re going to score and we’ll keep fighting to the end.
“I think we controlled the game for large parts of the 90 minutes. It took a bit of individual brilliance from Hempo to put the ball in the box and Chloe finished off the chance.
“It took 87 minutes but it was what we needed.”
With the absence of captain Steph Houghton, the clash provided the chance for the multiple leaders to step up, including Walsh herself.
Tipped to sport a captain’s armband in the future, the 23-year-old helped to inspire the team to victory but explained skipper Houghton had also played a part.
“It’s so important,” she explained. “When you look at our squad now, we have so many World Cup winners and Champions League winners, who step up.
“Steph is still around in the changing room, and at the training ground. She’s always an important part of the team.
“We all looked to her in the changing room and on the pitch, it was about all of us stepping up.
“We showed we can fight to the end.”
City have little time to celebrate the success with Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Barcelona looming.
The Spanish outfit lead the tie 3-0 from the first leg but true to her fighting spirit, Walsh asserts her side will give everything they can to mount what would be a sensational fightback.
“We were maybe a bit stand-offish in the first game, and gave them too much respect,” she conceded.
“Coming to our pitch, we always try to have good results here.
“We have to believe in ourselves. We have to take the game to them.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. We’re going throw everything at it and give it a right good go.”
