For those of a Liverpool persuasion, the year 2020 is perhaps most intrinsically linked with the image of Jordan Henderson standing on the Kop and holding aloft the Premier League trophy.
It had been a season like no other for Jurgen Klopp's squad. One of broken records, last-gasp winners and billowing red ticker tape. But as the men revelled in the euphoria of attaining the club's first league title in 30 years, Liverpool Women - somewhat ironically - sank into the Championship.
It had been a disappointing season for Vicky Jepson's side, who had won just one of their 14 games before the coronavirus pandemic saw the Women's Super League season brought to an abrupt halt and the Reds relegated via a points-per-game system.
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It had been a drastic fall from grace for Liverpool who, in 2011, had been a founding member of the WSL and became the first English club to offer all of its players full-time professional contracts.
It was a pioneering step that paid off as, with Matt Beard at the helm, Liverpool stormed to back-to-back league championships in 2013 and 2014.
But Beard's departure for American outfit Boston Breakers in 2015 almost proved a catalyst for the Reds slow decline. The next five years brought four managerial changes - three permanent and one interim coach - and a succession of mid-table finishes before relegation to the Chamionship.
It was impossible to pinpoint one standalone reason for the Reds' demise. There were murmurings of sub-par player accomodation, insufficient contact hours and a lack of investment in playing staff and infastructure.
Liverpool Women's financial accounts for the year ending May 31 2019 show they spent £733,257 on wages for the 2018-19 season, while Manchester City's accounts for the same period list their wage bill above £1.9m. While that is admittedly a considerable disparity, the Reds' outlay was significantly more than that of fellow league-strugglers Birmingham City's, whose wage bill for 2018-19 totalled just £546,870.
And of course it could also be argued Liverpool were denied the chance to legitimately secure their survival; the season curtailed with more than a third of fixtures still left to play. But, regardless of the root cause, Liverpool were relegated and, as such, became the first former winners of the WSL to drop down to the Championship.
The ensuing summer transfer window saw the likes of striker Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and goalkeeper Fran Kitching leave Prenton Park for pastures new before the Reds ended their first campaign in the second-tier in third place, 11 points adrift of promoted Leicester.
It was a season where, according to goalkeeper Rachael Laws, "the lows were low" and it marked something of a watershed moment for the club. In the summer of 2021, Matt Beard was recruited for a second-spell on Merseyside and the 44-year-old made eight signings ahead of Liverpool's second season in the Championship.
Meanwhile, performance psychologist, Dr Francesca Champ, was brought in to help focus players' minds and Russ Fraser was poached from Leicester to become the first managing director of the women’s team.
On the pitch, the recruitment of striker Leanne Kiernan and subsequent arrival of American forward Katie Stengel in January proved a masterstroke; the pair scoring 23 goals between them as Liverpool lost just two of their 22 games to secure a return to the top-flight.
It was a feat celebrated in all quarters of the club, the women joining Jurgen Klopp's squad on their open-top bus parade through the city in May, and the German himself was quick to acknowledge the achievements of Matt Beard's side.
"I was following it all the time around our games, looking when they played, who they played,” Klopp told the media after the women's side sealed promotion back in April. “I'm really happy for the girls. It's a big thing.
“Liverpool in the last years was not famous for dealing with the women’s football [team] outstandingly well, they didn’t go down for no reason, but now they are back and we have to make sure we use the situation."
And it certainly looked like the Reds had made perfect use of the situation when they took to the field at Prenton Park for an opening day clash with reigning WSL champions Chelsea in September. In front of a 3,000-strong crowd, Liverpool came from behind to beat Emma Hayes' side by two goals to one.
It was a huge statement but one that signalled something of a false dawn for Matt Beard's side. After the victory over Chelsea, Liverpool lost five consecutive league games, scoring just one goal in the process.
There were, undoubtedly, mitigating circumstances for the Reds' patchy form. Leanne Kiernan was carried off the pitch after sustaining an ankle injury on the opening day that would keep her sidelined until the new year, while marquee summer signing Shanice van de Sanden - who had previously enjoyed a spell on Merseyside in 2016/17 - also missed the first month of the season with a groin problem.
Liverpool's first five games saw them come up against four of last season's top five, while knocks to Ceri Holland and Missy Bo-Kearns further limited Matt Beard's arsenal of players.
It has not all been doom and gloom though. The Reds managed to halt their losing run with back-to-back draws with Brighton and Reading in November, before a comprehensive 2-0 victory against West Ham last time out saw them climb to ninth in the table; eight points ahead of bottom-placed Leicester.
Katie Stengel has continued her fine form in the top-flight, netting six goals in nine appearances to move above the likes of Arsenal's Vivianne Miedema and Chelsea's Sam Kerr in the goalscoring charts, while a series of eye-catching displays from Melissa Lawley have seen the winger work her way back into the England conversation.
"I do feel we could be in a better position points-wise but we are not, but we have started to find our feet and get a bit of consistency," Matt Beard told club media ahead of the WSL winter break.
"If you look back on the last month for us it has been good; so, it’s not easy to pick points up away from home and we’ve done that, we’ve been scoring goals. The West Ham win was a fantastic performance as well, so I do feel performance levels have got better as the season has gone on."
There is, of course, still work to do. The WSL is an unforgiving league where one result can see you either plummet down or catapult up the table, and the Reds will have to beat staunch top-flight opposition if they hope to progress further in the Conti Cup knockout stages next year.
But while Matt Beard's priority has to be ensuring his side's WSL survial, the Liverpool boss has, perhaps unconciously, laid bare what the club need to do to see themselves compete for the major honours in the women's game.
"The investment from clubs gets greater every year," he said, "and it’s been a tough transition for us at the start, especially the way the fixtures panned out for us at the start. I’m really pleased with the team and really pleased with how we have progressed."
While Beard may be satisifed with what his current crop of players have produced so far this term, he will need to be backed in the transfer market should the club wish to be seated at the top-flight's top table.
The £400,000 transfer of Lioness Keira Walsh from Manchester City to Barcelona in September set a new women's transfer record, and with the women's game seemingly on a steep upward trajectory, transfer fees to that tune are almost certain to become all the more common.
But while Liverpool will likely have to bide their time and steadily add to their squad over the coming few transfer windows, their manager is right. The last few months have seen the Reds find their feet on their return to the top-flight and, if recent form is anything to go by, the new year should see them make certain strides towards safety.
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