At the age of 26, Steph Houghton has had her fair share of highs and lows in football. From missing major international tournaments with serious injures to being named England captain earlier this year.
Houghton, one of the many current England internationals to have started their career at Sunderland, has also tasted success domestically. On Thursday she became the most successful player in the history of the Continental Cup by helping Manchester City, who she joined at the beginning of the season, to their first ever piece of silverwear. By lifting the trophy, as she did last year for Arsenal, Houghton has now won it in each of the last four years, since the competition began.
Although ending with celebrations, 2014 has been an inconsistent debut season for Manchester City. However, on an international front, things have been more straight forward. Since being named captain of England in April, Houghton has seen her team complete qualifying for the 2015 Women's World Cup and comfortably make it to Canada with an impressive played 10, won 10 record. Add that to a confidence boosting 4-0 victory against the Euro 2013 Semi-finalists, Sweden, and it has been a productive few months for the new England captain.
With the domestic season now ended, attention turns to the final international of the year, a glamour tie against women's football powerhouses, Germany. History will be made on 23rd November, as the women play for the first time at the new Wembley stadium, marking their successful World Cup qualification in style. At 2nd in the FIFA World Rankings, Germany, the current European Champions, will prove a tough test for a developing England side. Although previous encounters haven't gone well for the Lionesses, the last match ending in a 6-2 loss in the final of the 2009 European Championships, they haven't played each other for a while. In that time many things have changed, most notably the manager. So although the upcoming Germany match will be a difficult test, England will go into the historic game feeling confident with a good chance of victory.
England Women may have never played at Wembley, but history was made the when many of the same players were last there during the London 2012 Olympics. When Team GB played Brazil in front of a crowd of over 70,000, many said the game changed opinions and women's football came to the forefront of peoples minds. On that night when Steph Houghton scored what proved to be the winner in the 2nd minute, women's football changed forever in the UK, clearing the path for the historic England match next month.
Here is another look at that brilliant, historic goal which made Houghton famous.