It was almost as if there was light coming off from behind the strip.”
It’s clear when speaking to Bristol City and Scotland striker Abigail Harrison, she lives and breathes football and having grown up in Glasgow, she never really had any choice.
“It’s a culture,” explains Harrison. “You’re very much brought up to support one or the other, regardless of whether you like football. You’re green or you’re blue, you’re Celtic or you’re Rangers.”
Harrison is very much a green, starting out at her hometown club at the age of nine, before becoming the then youngest ever debutant when she made her Scottish Women’s Premier League debut at only 14 years old.
Her first start came against Spartans in a cup match, where Harrison assisted in extra-time and her first ever goal came against the same opposition.
“I walked in as a 14-year-old girl who thought they were ready to take on the weight of the world in senior football,” says Harrison.
While still in school and living the life of a usual teenager partnered with the limited coverage of the women’s game in Scotland, Harrison would go into matches full of confidence despite her young age.
“I’d go just go out and play the same way that I would at the park with my friends, up against people with absolutely no fear and not knowing what they’d done or how good they were.”
The naivety that came with youth at the start of her spell at Celtic served her well as Harrison managed to consistently score despite her young age and transition from a fan to a star of her own.
She says: “I remember the first time I got my name on the back of my strip. Number seven is the holy grail of Celtic whether it be ‘Jinky’ Johnstone or Henrik Larsson, who I grew up celebrating like in my back garden.
“When I made the move up, I don’t know how I was so lucky but seven was available and I managed to get it. It was almost as if light was coming off from behind this strip and it had 'Harrison, 7' written on it, I've still got it hung up in my house at home.
“I grew up pretending to be that young girl that played for Celtic, and I managed to do it, I hope one day I manage to do it again.”
The 2014 season was a difficult one for Celtic, despite not being the giant that they are in the men’s game their fifth placed finish was one of disappointment and lead to a number of high-profile departures.
There was a feeling around the club that there was an intent to scale back their interest in the women’s side of the club and the likes of Gemma Fay, Rhonda Jones and Chloe Arthur were some of the key players to head to the exit door.
Harrison like a number of her teammates felt the need to make her hardest ever footballing decision, swapping the Hoops for Hibernian as she continued to aim to make the most of her career and shift her focus to more silverware.
The striker had already moved to Edinburgh as part of a scholarship system with the Scottish Football Association, allowing players to train every day when full-time wasn’t yet available.
“I had to take my love for Celtic out of it,” says Harrison. “The exposure I could get in terms of playing in cups and playing in the Champions League, that was much more likely to come quicker at Hibs so from a football point of view it was a no-brainer.”
During her spell in Edinburgh, the Scot won three Scottish Women’s Premier League Cups, but Glasgow City’s dominance led to second place finishes in each of her four seasons.
Because of her goal scoring exploits at such a young age with Celtic, there was a level of expectation for Harrison to immediately deliver despite only being 18 years old when she made the move.
But Harrison’s impressive goal scoring record continued in the capital, twice winning the golden boot as the striker continued her development scoring 25 goals in the 2018 season and showed the world, she wasn’t a flash in the pan.
“It was probably the time I did my most growing up,” says the striker. “I moved with a lot of pressure on my back as somebody that had been scoring in the topflight. That’s probably where I had to stop taking it as such a hobby and really take it seriously.”
Like in the men’s game, female footballers in Scotland tend to have the desire to move south of the border with the standard of domestic football in England being the pinnacle.
Throughout her time in Scotland, Harrison always knew that she would have to head south of the border to continue her career development and in 2019 she made the move to the south-west with Bristol City.
“When the opportunity came about, I was onto my agent saying, ‘let’s get this done as soon as possible. I don’t care if they don’t pay me.’ I just needed to be down there and show what I can do in another league.”
It wasn’t the easiest transition for the striker who struggled to find a consistent place in the Vixens’ team, such was the form of Ebony Salmon whose goals saw the 20-year-old earn her first England cap.
After less than a year with the then Women’s Super League side, the striker suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury that ruled her out for the rest of the season and can quite often change a player’s entire career.
Although a serious injury for any sports star, a recent study has suggested that female footballers are two to three more times likely to suffer an ACL injury and much more likely to experience one at a younger age.
Harrison says: “It’s not an injury that you’d wish upon anybody, you never think it’s going to happen to you. I don’t think it could’ve happened at a better time, I only missed about five league games and then Covid hit in March, so I was at home.
“My dad’s a sports physio so I was lucky, I saw it as my opportunity and with the world of sport being on halt, I was able focus solely on me.”
The Women’s Super League was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, with Chelsea being crowned champions and meant that Bristol City had no games between March and September, allowing Harrison six months to recover without the pain of missing fixtures.
“When I look back now a couple of years on it’s probably the best thing to ever happen to me, it’s the wake-up call that I probably never wanted but absolutely needed. I’m bigger, better, stronger and now I’m playing some of the best stuff I've played.
“It’s that appreciation that I could walk onto that pitch, and it might be the last time so make sure you leave your mark and enjoy it.”
Harrison’s form this season under new manager Lauren Smith has been nothing short of remarkable with 13 goals in the Championship so far this season as the Robins sit second in the division.
Smith’s introduction as well at the return to England’s second tier has allowed City to adopt a more attacking brand of football meaning the forward talent is being fully utilised and the players are enjoying it.
“We like playing attractive and front-foot football and that’s me to a T,” says Harrison. “I get to do it full-time; I’m scoring goals and I go into work which is what it’s called but it’s not work for us.
“We go in and we run about and kick a football and laugh for six-seven hours of the day. Albeit we work hard but we make sure we enjoy it as well.”
The City squad underwent a huge rebuild in the summer after relegation from the WSL, with almost an entirely new starting XI other than Harrison and captain Aimee Palmer, but despite a strong start from the young side, Harrison is hungry for more.
“It’s a journey and teams will be damned to come up against us because if this is how we’re playing after six months together what’s it going to be like come 12 months, 18 months?”
Harrison will be part of that journey having committed her future to Bristol City recently, signing a year extension to her current contract which will see her remain with Smith’s side at least until the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign.
“We want to blow teams away; we want to be relentless and that probably comes from all of us being on the other side of that. It’s our home pitch and it’s our fortress and that’s what we want it to be.”
This season has seen City move to their new home at the Robins High Performance Centre. In addition to all changes on the pitch, there is certainly a feeling that the entirety of Bristol City is being brought closer together.
Smith previously was assistant coach and technical director at Bristol City as well as spells with Tottenham Hotspur and Wales and since returning to the southwest she has rebuilt the feel-good factor amongst the new squad.
“She keeps us humble,” explains Harrison. “She’s been able to create a great environment where we’re not scared to make mistakes, we know that we can all flourish no matter if you’re 16 years old or 30.
“She’s brought in not only good players but a certain type of person as well and it’s the tightest knit squad I've ever been in, and we do genuinely get on like best friends.”
The impressive form or the Vixens and Harrison hasn’t gone unnoticed around the footballing world, with the 24-year-old earning a recall to the Scottish national team in November 2021.
In her first competitive start for the national team, Harrison headed home a late equaliser as Scotland drew 1-1 with Ukraine at Hampden Park.
“I still don’t think it’s really hit me,” grins Harrison. “We should’ve won the game, but my family, my friends were there, and I grew up five minutes down the road so as a family it’s full-circle and we enjoy those moments.”
It’s overwhelmingly clear that Harrison is never content with what she’s already achieved in the game and instead is constantly looking ahead to the next challenge.
“I’ll always want more than what I’ve got, call it obsessive, call it unrealistic, I always want the next best thing, how can I improve from a day-to-day perspective but also a year-on-year perspective as well.
“I don’t want to ever look back and think I should’ve made that move but I was too scared or anything like that.”
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