SWNT on Tour: Summer 2023 Dispatch #003
Having come off a Player of the Year nominated season in the WSL whilst on loan at Aston Villa. We chart the rise of Manchester United winger Kirsty Hanson and what it could mean for Scotland.
Scotland’s 3-0 victory over Northern Ireland on Friday night continued the positive vibes amongst a squad now seemingly brimming with talent. The recent move of Sam Kerr to Frauen-Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich has been making headlines most recently, as has the move of Glasgow City defender Jenna Clark to Liverpool. The emergence of precocious midfield duo Emma Watson and Kirsty MacLean has added a youthful verve while the global talents of Caroline Weir and Erin Cuthbert have reached acclaim far beyond these bonnie shores.
It feels like a genuinely exciting time to be a fan of the Scottish women’s national team again and one player’s own personal growth in these last twelve months perhaps best represents the feeling of building momentum that has been emanating from Pedro Martinéz Losa’s side in 2023. I am of course talking about Manchester United winger Kirsty Hanson, who courtesy of a scintillating season on loan at Aston Villa has emerged as one of Scotland’s most potent attacking threats.
In the third of the SWNT on Tour Summer 2023 Series, the first two parts of which can be found here, let’s explore the progress the Halifax-born winger has made in cementing herself firmly in Scotland’s first team plans.
Manchester United and Scotland Debut
Hanson’s rise to prominence came as part of the newly-formed Manchester United side that would seal promotion to the WSL in the 2018/19 season. Recruited having been a former youth player with a recent spell at Doncaster Belles under her name she would score five times across seventeen appearances as United would claim the Championship title at the first time of asking.
She would continue to feature regularly the following season as the Manchester side acclimatised to the step up in level and having made her season debut in October she would be named WSL Player of the Month that same month after goals against Tottenham Hotspur and Reading. Her performance against Spurs in particular would show all the hallmarks of the player Hanson has started to become consistently. Front footed and unafraid to take on defenders; in a squad that contained the talents of Leah Galton, Jess Sigsworth and the emerging Ella Toone, Hanson was holding her own although an ankle injury picked up in January 2020 would see her season come to a premature end.
One of seven players to return to United when the senior side was launched in 2018, she would re-emerge as a prominent figure the following season as United pushed to get closer to the top of the table. She would split her time between the starting eleven and a role on the bench as the arrival of American international Tobin Heath and England prospect Alessia Russo added further competition to an increasingly stacked area of coach Casey Stoney’s United squad.
Having now established herself in England’s top flight it would be during this season that Hanson would make her debut for Scotland. A late replacement for future team-mate at club level Martha Thomas she would play the fill ninety minutes as Scotland defeated Albania 3-0 at an empty Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh. Hanson would feature in the losses to Finland and Portugal that ended Scotland’s Euro 2021 hopes but she would follow up that disappointment with her first international goal in a 10-0 victory over Cyprus, assisting twice as Scotland romped to victory in a qualifying dead rubber.
Moving on from United, and taking the WSL by storm last season
At the end of the 2020/21 season Stoney, the coach that Hanson had credited with bringing her back to the club, announced her resignation, eventually heading to the USA to take over at new NWSL franchise San Diego Wave.
Stoney’s successor Marc Skinner seemed instantly wooed by the dynamic winger with Hanson at the end of an opening day move against Reading that Skinner would describe as giving him shivers up his spine and she would be a regular started until midway through the season having only managed one goal and one assist in the opening ten appearances.
With opportunities increasingly limited at United Hanson would join WSL rivals Aston Villa on loan for the 2022/23 season, linking up with highly-rated coach Carla Ward and international team-mate Rachel Corsie.
Ward, in her second season in charge having performed miracles to guide local rivals Birmingham in her first foray into the WSL had already steadied the ship at Villa, who themselves had narrowly avoided the drop that same season and had begun looking to transform her side from functional to a more free-flowing attacking team; an evolution made possible by the signings of England forward Rachel Daly, midfield duo Kenza Dali and Jordan Nobbs and of course, Hanson.
While Hanson’s ability to terrorise full backs and stretch the play have always been there for the eye to see it is the 2022/23 campaign that saw her numbers really start to shine.
Her sixteen goal contribution (7 goals and 9 assists) for the league season saw her ranked fifth across the entire division, while only Chelsea’s Norwegian midfielder Guro Reiten, with eleven, contributed more assists than the Scotland international’s nine. She was amongst the league leaders in progressive carries and successful take-ons and her ability to judge the FIFA sweat cut-back had been well and truly mastered.
Her devastating attacking form earned Hanson a WSL Player of the Season nomination and with it the creation of this jazzy compilation video with obligatory inspirational musical overlay, one that conveniently demonstrates the range of her prowess both as scorer and provider.
So what does this mean for Scotland going forward?
Hanson has come into this international double header in the form of her life and while Carla Ward still has to wait to see if she will get her wish in keeping Hanson for the season to come Scotland fans can luxuriate in the knowledge that one of European football’s most exciting attacking talents is one of our own.
The sight of Claire Emslie harrying down the left-hand side has long become a well recognised trademark of how our national look to utilise fast counters and width. We absolutely love a winger and Hanson’s progress this season has afforded the national side the opportunity to now pose a consistent threat down both attacking flanks.
Against Northern Ireland at Dens Park her forays to the byline were relentless leaving opposing full-back Rebecca McKenna, and any team-mate that dared to lend a hand, in knots. Hanson left the game with just one assist, but she was instrumental in building the moment that led to the seven minute blitz that blew the Northern Irish away. Her cut-back for Martha Thomas’s third just one of a number of dangerous deliveries into the opposing area.
Hanson will create chances and can now look ahead to the Nations League with the knowledge that the calibre of player that the English, Dutch and Belgian defences will possess are also of the same level that she has left on their bahookies in the WSL last term.
In a post-match interview following victory over the Irish she talked about how the zippy, slick pitch encouraged her and her teammates to take on players and drive the game forward, a statement that felt symptomatic of the vigour that she has grown to attack any given game state with. In an area of the pitch where a number of players have rotated it now feels like it is the 19-time-capped winger’s to lose and that is very exciting indeed.
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