Inverness Caley Thistle women’s goalkeeper Jen Horrocks on a year of bad luck, the growth of women’s football and playing against top stars like Alex Scott and Eni Aluko
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Jen Horrocks would be forgiven for thinking her association with Inverness Caledonian Thistle was cursed.
Having tried to return to football after a few years away from the game, she broke her arm during the warm-up ahead of what would have been her first match in Caley Jags colours.
Just a few months after finally making her debut, Horrocks then got called away for work with the RAF, travelling overseas.
Most recently, a dislocated finger in the match against Westdyke last month could have scuppered her chances of playing a part in ICT’s run-in, but thankfully it looks like she should be able to return for this Sunday’s match against Ayr United at Millburn Academy.
A strong end to the campaign, both on a personal and team level, should set the tone for what will hopefully be another charge at promotion next season.
“I started wondering whether it was worth it, and whether I was doing the right thing,” Horrocks recalled.
“It was like something was telling me I shouldn’t be playing, but it was something I still really wanted to do.
“Getting those first few training sessions in before I did break my arm gave me the buzz back, and helped me realise it is something I really want to do.
“I just had to try and keep my fitness up while my arm was broken, because I knew it would heal eventually. There wasn’t long left in the season at that point, so I also knew I’d be able to have a bit of a break then come back for pre-season, which I was ready for.
“It was really good finally getting to play, because we’d had a really good pre-season. Everybody in the team was really fit, and it was just nice to be back involved.
“Obviously I was a bit nervous because it had been so long since I played a game, but the girls all made me feel better about it. After about 10 minutes, I was just back in the zone like I had never been away.
“Hopefully I won’t be away again too soon. We should have 18 months between deployments, but it just depends on the turnaround really – there isn’t anything I can really do about that.
“It’s my job now. If it weren’t for the RAF, I wouldn’t be in Scotland, so it’s something I just have to deal with.
“I’m hoping that next season we can push for promotion, because I think we are capable. We’ve got the players, it’s just the Highlands and being out of the way meaning that if you get a few injuries, you can struggle because you haven’t got the numbers.
“There are a lot of young ones coming through the academy, and a lot of good players, so hopefully we can push for promotion and take it to the next level.
“The women’s game is getting bigger all the time, so for me I just want to keep playing the best I can for as long as I can.”
The availability issues were made all the more galling for Horrocks by the fact it was meant to be her return to football after a few years out.
A change of career saw Horrocks give up teaching for the RAF, having previously played at a high level south of the border for Blackburn Rovers.
There, she was part of a squad that won back-to-back promotions into what was then England’s top tier, the Women’s Premier League where she went up against the likes of England legends Eni Aluko, Lianne Sanderson and current BBC presenter Alex Scott.
“I got scouted by someone from Blackburn playing at a school tournament when I was about 10,” Horrocks explained.
“I used to play with the lads at school, and I was always in net, but I went to Blackburn’s under-12 girls’ team and then moved up the age groups to the under-14s.
“When I was there, the ladies’ keeper got an injury, and they didn’t have anyone else, so they put me in the first team at 14. I made my debut against Manchester United at The Cliff. I remember that like it was yesterday, it was great.
“We got beaten 3-1 but I had a really good game, and I kept my spot from there in the ladies’ team. We got promoted two seasons in-a-row into the Northern Premier League and then into the National Premier League.
“We were playing against Arsenal and coming up against Kelly Smith and Alex Scott, it was that kind of era.
“It was really surreal being a young girl, because at that point I was still only 16 or 17, and they were people I had watched playing for England. To be on the same pitch as them, it was quite a surreal experience.
“At that point, I thought I was going to be England’s number one. I was full of confidence, and I was just enjoying playing. There wasn’t really any pressure at that point, and I don’t think people really had any expectations because I was so young.
“I played for Blackburn until I was about 19 or 20, and then they brought in a keeper from America and got a new coach who wanted to put this new keeper in. I was a sub quite a lot for the season afterwards, and then I just wanted to play.
“I went and played for Preston for a bit. I was there for a couple of seasons, and then I started teaching so I started struggling for time to really commit to football.
“I ended up playing for Chorley for a little bit, and then I stopped playing for a while.
“I wouldn’t say I fell out of love with football, it had just become a bit of a hobby on the side. I had loads of people asking me to come and play for them when I stopped playing but I just didn’t have the time.”
While Horrocks was on a route out of football, the women’s game was going from strength to strength. She would watch England matches on TV and see the development in physicality and media attention, and long to be a part of it.
Having relocated to the north of Scotland and settled into life with the RAF, something inside her wanted to play again, and so she reached out to Caley Thistle.
“I realised I was getting to the point where, if I didn’t play again, I would never be able to do it, so that’s when I came up to Scotland and decided to find a team to start playing with again,” she reasoned.
“I missed it massively. With the women’s game and England growing so much, I would watch on TV and really want to play.
“It was always something that I wanted to get involved with again in the back of my mind, but the longer you leave something the harder it is to start again. Your fitness level drops, and your confidence drops a little bit.
“Being in the RAF, my fitness got back up a bit higher again and I just thought I had nothing to lose by giving it another go.
“I still nearly died after the first training session! No matter how much fitness I did in the RAF, it didn’t prepare me for a football session. It’s a completely different type of fitness, especially goalkeeping.
“I remember doing a shooting drill and I was just getting up and getting back down. I was making saves but I was absolutely knackered, and then I got cramp in my calves.
“I really enjoyed it, but I realised it would take me a bit of time to get back to where I wanted to be fitness-wise. It did a little bit, but it came back pretty quickly really to be fair. I’ve really enjoyed it since I’ve been here.”
As with many players of her generation, Horrocks is somewhat jealous of the opportunities available to young women and girls in football in 2024.
However, she can hold her head high that she played through an era that helped set the stage for the current level of excitement around women’s football.
“The professionalism and fitness levels are totally different now,” Horrocks added.
“When I used to watch women’s football on TV, I didn’t really enjoy it because it was quite slow. The technical ability was there, but it was slow, and now it has massively caught up.
“The girls can actually play full time and train all week, they don’t need to have another job, and that has made a massive difference I think.
“The money that has gone into it, and the exposure it’s got, it’s amazing really. You wouldn’t have believed it before the Euros, and now I get so many people saying to me that they love watching women’s football.
“It never used to get that kind of reaction, it used to just be comments like ‘women shouldn’t play football’.
“Women’s football had to go through what it was like when I played in the top league in England for it to become what it is now.
“Sometimes I might be a little bit jealous, because I would obviously have loved to experience what a lot of the young girls are experiencing now.
“The opportunities they are getting weren’t really there when we were there, but equally it does feel good to have been part of building that up.
“Without a lot of the players I played with, it wouldn’t be the way it is now. There wouldn’t be the interest, which is nice to see now.”
