After Charlton Athletic beat Portsmouth 3-0 on the opening day of the new Barclays Women’s Championship season, The Halfway Line heard from goalscorer Ellie Brazil. The attacker signed for Karen Hills’ side this summer from Tottenham Hotspur, and was justifiably delighted with her Sunday afternoon showing at The Valley.

Having suffered two anterior cruciate ligament injuries, the more recent of which occurred while she was playing for Spurs in October 2022, Brazil’s strong mentality and sheer talent as a footballer shone through during the Addicks’ most recent triumph.

The forward said of her recent transfer, “For me it’s just getting back out on the pitch and enjoying it, and that’s exactly what Charlton have allowed me to do. I’m really grateful to be here. Genuinely, really grateful.”

Brazil, having scored an early brace against Pompey, continued “It’s meant I can get minutes under my belt, grow in confidence, and just love the game again. I’m on the right track to get there, so today was a good start.”

Speaking passionately about the warm welcome she has received from supporters of her new club, the new signing declared “I’ve only had two games here at The Valley, but we seem to get a good turnout, and they’re lovely. We really appreciate everyone that comes down, and the more the merrier! But, the ones we’ve got seem very loyal, so we really appreciate it.”

Charlton missed out on promotion to the Barclays Women’s Super League by just one point at the end of the 2023/24 season, and look to chase the title again this time around. “It’s always hard, when you lose out on winning the Championship like the girls did, it creates a different sort of fire in your belly.”

Brazil went on, “You’ve lost out by one point. It’s not like you’ve lost out by a lot. That’s minimal, so we’re in it to win it, as a lot of teams will be. Today is just a stepping stone into that.”

“We just need to build on every single performance, and I think having our first performance being three-nil is a great place to start,” affirmed the player, clearly confident in her side’s ability to take it all the way this year.

The 25-year-old also touched on what is was like coming up against Jay Sadler’s newly promoted Pompey. “Portsmouth, they had an excellent run last year,” she said. Expressing her respect for the Barclays Women’s Championship debutants, a resilient Brazil told the media “It was really fun to play against them. I think they’ll be fine this year, they’ll be brilliant.”

Charlton now turn their attention to next weekend, when they will travel to Sheffield United in the hopes of adding three more points to their tally.