In the Spotlight | Jess Williams

When Swansea City Women defender Jess Williams recently made her 100th appearance for the club, she could reflect on a challenging journey to the landmark that included nearly two years on the sidelines through injury, catching three early-morning buses to play for her country at youth level, and experiencing Champions League football.

The 25-year-old initially joined the Swans in 2018, having just helped Cyncoed to the Welsh Premier League Cup. It was a big move to the dominant team in Welsh football, but a sizeable setback was just around the corner.

The Cwmbran product was just three games into her Swansea career when she suffered an ACL injury. The prognosis for recovery would usually be around nine months, but this was at a time when the Swans Women’s set-up was fully amateur and not as well resourced and supported as it is now.

In the end, her lay-off would stretch beyond 700 days, and there was a lot of soul-searching as the initial joy over the move gave way to the realization of the long road to recovery that lay ahead.

“When I had the phone call from Swansea, I remember I was watching my little brother playing and I just knew straight away, I said I was going to take my time and make a decision but I knew that I would go straight away,” said Williams.

“Then the injury happened and it still haunts me, because back then we didn’t have the backing that we do now.

“We didn’t have anything to support us really, so for an injury that you can be out for nine months, having surgery the same week, I was out for over 700 days, which is a massive difference.

“It was essentially two years of my Swansea career, but I would still turn up to training and to games to show my support and try and feel a part of it. 

“It was a very tough couple of years, looking back it doesn’t feel real, because to think about being out for two years is something I can’t imagine now.

“I just knew that I was determined to be back. To be fair to the physios at the time, they really supported me, they helped me through it and I was still working on things that I could still do with them.

“I grew a lot of relationships through that period and being around the team through that definitely helped me in the long run even though it was such a tough period.

“I had massive nerves when I was stepping back onto the pitch, it was obviously very nerve-wracking, I waited a long time for it, but after I stepped back on it felt like I’d never left.”

After 719 days of being on the sideline, Williams returned to the field as she replaced Kelly Adams (née Newcombe) in the south Wales derby with three minutes to go as the Swans earned a 3-0 win.

But Williams knew that her fight to be on the field wasn’t done there as she worked her way back to match fitness and form, with captain Alicia Powe and defender Shauna Jenkins firmly established in the team, who were coming off the back of a 2019-20 campaign that had seen them secure another league title.

“It was great to be back, but arguably the hardest part of it was trying to earn my place back in the squad, it was such a strong team, and I think the season I came back into it was one of our strongest,” Williams explained.

“I was a centre-half fighting against what I considered to be the best two centre-halves in the league in Shauna [Jenkins] and Powe. 

“They are the best two that I’ve played with, so it was hard sitting on the bench after sitting on the sideline for so long. I was just itching to play.

“When I got the chance, playing with Alicia was one of the biggest learning experiences for me. She had over 20 years at the club, which is so special, that’s a huge achievement. 

“I played with Shauna growing up through every club. We played at Cwmbran together, played for Cyncoed together, then we were back at Swansea together.

“We always played together for Wales at youth level, we were always centre-back partners together. She is one of the best, playing with her was an absolute pleasure, she’s very good at what she does which I will always say and I feel like she should have made it in and around the top of the game.

“Up against players of that quality, it took somewhere between a season and a season-and-a-half before I really got my foot in the door.

“From there I got onto the pitch and began to start games, I just kept building and worked on things that people told me I needed to work, and thankfully that’s got me where I am now.”

Prior to her time with the Swans, Williams’ football story began in her hometown of Cwmbran.

Growing up as the only girl in a house of four children, Williams felt it was inevitable that she would end up playing football.

Initially there was a lot of switching of grassroots clubs, before finding her feet within the national set up.

“I am from Cwmbran, I grew up in Cwmbran, and my first ever football team was Cwmbran Celtic when I was six years old,” said Williams.

“I’m the only girl with three brothers so it was always obvious that I was going to play football. My two older brothers played football, I used to play with them growing up, but I’m the only one still playing football now.

“I always played football when I was in primary school, I was the only girl in school on the yard playing football with the boys, it started from there and then my dad took me to a training session.

“I started off as a goalkeeper at Cwmbran Celtic, then I moved on to Llanyrafon, another team in Cwmbran. We did very well, we were the best in our league. I then went back to Cwmbran Celtic – which was where I began playing outfield as I moved up the age groups – and then back to Llanyrafon again so there was a bit of switching around.

“I was playing as a right winger, but when I went into my first Welsh camp and they immediately put me in as a centre-back and I didn’t really know what hit me! But it was obviously the right decision and I have not really looked back since.

“It was amazing to be involved in that set up. At 11 or 12 I was around the regional set up, I was training with the coaches and then you would get selected into the national squad. 

“When I was 14 I got selected for my first under-15s’ camp, you would go to Sophia Gardens for three or four days, you would miss a day of school and it was probably the best couple of years of my life.

“There were hard moments, but playing for Wales was always an unbelievable experience and every time you got in you would get sent a letter - no emails back then - and all of us would be sending each other photos seeing if we’d got in. 

“I finally made my debut against England in the Bob Docherty Cup and I was captain, which will always be a top moment for me, and I had the pleasure of playing for all of the age groups.

“On my first camps, Charlie Escourt was there, Hannah Cain was there, when I was a little bit older Ffion Morgan, Lilly Woodham were called up. I trained with a few of the older seniors as well. I played with and against a lot of them that are in the squad now and what they are achieving at the moment is incredible.”

Williams desire to be part of the national set up saw her making the 32 mile round trip each day from her home town of Cwmbran to Ystrad Mynach for college and training.

While the classic story in football is of parents driving the aspiring young footballer from session to session, it was Williams who took the initiative to make this journey every day, and it often involved plenty of logistical planning and a lot of early mornings.

“I went to Coleg y Cymoedd, which is where you would go if you were playing for Wales, you would train every day and it was like a professional set up for two years,” said Williams.

“My family didn’t actually take me to many places, which I know a lot of people’s back story is about not being able to get to training and do what they did without them, but I kind of did it on my own, that’s how it was.

“I had to get three buses in the morning to make the 8am session, so I was up at 5.30am. At 6am I would be getting my first bus to Newport, then from Newport to Caerphilly, and then from Caerphilly to Ystrad Mynach and I used to do that daily.

“Then with Wales you used to have a Monday night session with the squad, so all of the age groups including the seniors around the area would join on a Monday night, it was quite an intense session.

College would finish about 3.30pm to 4pm and I just used to sit in the changing rooms until 7pm when everyone would arrive and train then until 9pm at night.

“I look back and realise just how much of a commitment it was, some of the girls would tell me how demanding it was what I was doing.

“But I loved the game so much, playing for our country is an amazing honour and I would never have changed it. That experience made me the player I am.”

Wind forward to today and Williams has won three league titles and one league cup for the Swans, as well as playing in four Uefa Women’s Champions League qualifying fixtures and playing five times at the Swansea.com Stadium. She is also now a semi-professional after the club’s change of status around 18 months ago.

The defender feels those European trips remain the biggest stand-outs of her career, giving her a first taste of real professionalism in football in a time when the women’s side were still an amateur outfit.

“We played Apollon in 2020 during Covid, and we did our whole Champions League run in 24 hours, which not many players will have done and made it work. We had a chartered flight there and back with a game in between in 24 hours,” she recalls.

“We had to isolate for 48 hours, get on a flight then go straight to a hotel. We dropped off our stuff and trained, had food and went to bed. We played the following morning, and then went straight from the changing rooms to the airport.

“It was the first time where I was really taken aback and just felt fully like a professional.

“But the biggest stand out game was a couple of years later when we took CSKA Moscow to extra-time.

“We pushed them all the way, which I don’t think anyone was expecting us to do. They were a fully professional side, we weren’t even semi-professional at that point, so to compete against teams like that is something we will always remember and I think we can do it again.

“Chloe Chivers equalised for us near the end, we had been defending a lot and putting so much work in. When the ball hit the net it was just surreal.

“Then, when the elation wears off you realise you have got to do it again for another 30 minutes in 30-degree heat. We lost in the end, but the feeling in that moment was indescribable.”

From her beginnings in the league with Cyncoed, to now playing in front of thousands of supporters for a semi-professional side, Williams has only seen the club and the league grow.

Williams is proud of the development she has seen around her and been part of, but still has strong ambitions to keep it growing and to add more trophies to Swansea City’s roll of honour.

“I think the biggest change from when I started to now is the expectation of what the highest level in Wales is and the standard of it,” said Williams.

“I would always expect to act professionally, but now it’s not even a question. You have to give everything, there are eyes on us all the time, and the expectation is so much higher. We have people who look up to us, having our names on their shirts and following us across Wales.

“I know we’ve signed new players, but myself and Katy Hosford have come through the ranks.

“There’s myself, Katy, Stacey (John-Davis) and Sophie (Brisland-Hancocks) all did the hard yards at Baglan, so seeing where the club has progressed to is fantastic. It means so much to all of us, we have gained friends and connections for life.

“The steps and changes that we have made as a club are obvious, when I started we would be paying to play, now we have players who are being paid and that’s been a big step.

“I do think we have a lot more to give as a team. But it is a process, I know we are on the way to winning some trophies, but it’s about trusting that process and pulling together to trust each other.

“I believe that we can win and I believe that we can win trophies this year, if I didn’t believe that I probably wouldn’t be here because that is what Swansea City should be aspiring to do  every year.

“We have always been one of the biggest clubs in the league and that comes with certain expectations and standards you have to meet. We want to create something that people want to be a part of and that means aspiring young players want to following in our footsteps.

“That all comes from the club supporting us as they do, and the belief that have put in us. We want to repay that.”