On moving from playing men’s football to women’s football at Aberdeen University.
It is quite interesting, because as I say, so when I moved to Aberdeen in 2016 – so obviously I was– my plan, you know, was to create a new life for myself. Because I knew I was always going to transition at some point, but– so my plan was to put my big-girl pants on and literally move to Aberdeen for my undergrad, and transition from that moment on. But I did chicken out a little bit, so I ended up spending the first six months in Aberdeen in the closet. So I started, you know, playing with the men’s team. Played with them for two seasons, I believe, and then it was 2018, 2019, I moved to the women’s. But, and this is the thing where I think, like, for Kerry Stephen and Ariane Beaver they don’t get enough credit for me, like, in my progression in the women’s game, is because at that point I didn’t seek the move into the women’s game. I was just like, well, I’m just going to, you know, play the rest of the season, a couple of– the rest of the football seasons at uni. And then, you know, that’s it, I don’t belong in the men’s game, that sort of stuff. So they brought me into the women’s game in Aberdeen, which then, and I ended up playing with Stonehaven because they asked me, asked for me to play there, and I ended up playing with Grampian, which was good. So again, always sort of nervous, going into new teams. But again, in Aberdeen that was me sort of being, you know, I wouldn’t say headhunted, but just being asked, “oh, you’re a really good player, really good goalkeeper, come and play with us.”
On being targeted by anti-trans campaigners and the media.
I went down on the first game, and the only game I’ve ever played with Sutton was against Haywards Heath. And I’ve been down there, lovely, I think it was down in September or August, or whenever it was. Gorgeous day down in Haywards Heath. And played a game, the team won 6-0. And, you know, I basically as a goalkeeper didn’t touch the ball. The ball was never near me, or anything like that. Haywards Heath unfortunately, who were Crawley Wasps, unfortunately they’re a poor team, and it’s quite sad to see them going down, in a way, and they just keep going down, it’s unfortunate. So– [silent hiccup] excuse me. So yeah, basically after that game, Sutton United then announced me on social media. And that’s where people, you say anti-trans campaigners, got hold of it, and basically, you know, were saying “this shouldn’t be happening”, “this is shocking”, blah-blah-blah. What was quite interesting was, Sutton played in the same league that I played with Saltdean for two years. So I’d been playing in that league for two years. Everyone knew me anyway. So it wasn’t as if, like, erm, there was a problem.
So then the media ran a story saying that one of the girls from Haywards Heath was, erm, was petrified to play against me, or whatever it was. Again, I don’t understand how, because I never touched the ball the entire game really. And then, so obviously more commentary. Then what happened, we were playing Ebbsfleet the next week. Was on the Thursday or the Friday, I can’t remember, the board asked [Name Redacted] “do you mind if Blair doesn’t play this weekend? Just ‘til it blows over.” So, then basically long story short, the game gets cancelled an hour and a half before kick-off on the Sunday. I’m sitting there in a pub in Manchester watching the Old Firm, which is quite interesting. So I’m sitting watching that, see: oh, game’s cancelled, something’s up, whatever. Basically– and then the media ran another story, which is totally not true, that said that the game was cancelled because Ebbsfleet refused – Ebbsfleet – one: there was media stories that said that Ebbsfleet refused to play against me. Which is totally untrue. And there’s also media that said that my own teammates refused to play with me, so that’s why the game was cancelled. When actually, it was just the board making a decision from Sutton, basically saying, “well, we don’t think we should play this weekend, in case our players” – as in, the Sutton players – “get any, sort of, abuse or anything like that.”
So they were trying to protect their players, but ended up throwing me under the bus at the same time. So again, that all blew up in the media, and all that sort of stuff. So basically, I came to– I came to the decision, I was like: well I’m not willing to play with a club whose board doesn’t support me. And this is where I think big parallels come, or big contrasts come, between like, Montpelier Villa, Hastings United and Saltdean. Like, all three of those clubs supported me wholeheartedly and got– like, anything that happened, when I was playing for the England Unis squad, Hastings put out a statement, even said, you know, “the discrimination that Blair faced was terrible, we will always stand behind Blair.” When it happened with Saltdean, you know, all the girls were like, “we’ll put something out on social media.” So they put a statement out. When I was at Brighton Uni women’s team as well, they put a statement out when all the discrimination was happening. So they all were really behind me, whereas that was the first club I’d ever been at that basically threw me under the bus. And that was hard, that was tough
On supporting younger players in the game.
I want to be the person in the training centre, or in the gym, or anything like that, that’s actually mentoring and bringing on younger players. And actually, you know, sharing my experiences of dealing with the media. Sharing my experiences of, you know, my playing position, of you know, any sort of experience I’ve had. Like, one of the best things that I said when I was down in Saltdean, the reason Saltdean signed me was because there was a young, young goalkeeper, called Charlotte. And she’s a really, really talented young goalkeeper. But she was like 17, 18 and she was playing, you know, first-team women’s football for the first time, and she was struggling. Like, you know, physically, mentally, all that sort of stuff. So they brought me in. And she wanted, I believe, to quit, when I joined. Just because she was like, I just want to play football anymore. And I literally said to her, I was like, “listen, I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but just stay, train, train with me, let me give my experience onto you, and develop you on”. And to the point where, you know, when I left Saltdean she cried. She was literally like, “I don’t know what I’ll do, you know, without you. You passing on the experience”. And again, another one I still speak to on social media and still check in on her now, because she’s away at uni now. But, yeah, I think that’s – that’s legacy for me. Like again, you can – and I suppose like again, back from my own previous coaching as well – you can be the best player that you want to be. You can be the best coach you want to be. But at the end of the day, your legacy is what you’ve done for people’s lives.