da betsson： The Australia star had to wait for her chance, but she has been in flying form since displacing one of England's biggest names in Gareth Taylor's XI

da stake casino： As the clock ticked past the hour-mark last Sunday, Manchester City needed a hero. While most thought the Women’s Super League leaders would be no match for soon-to-be-relegated Bristol City, they simply could not find a way to break the deadlock, and it looked like their strong position in the title race was about to weaken. That was until Mary Fowler, who only recently went four months without a league start, stepped up.

The 21-year-old’s two-goal display in an eventual 4-0 win was the latest in a string of top performances that have seen her keep hold of a starting berth in the Cityzens’ competitive forward line, leaving Lionesses icon Chloe Kelly among the substitutes until an injury to Khadija Shaw paved a path for her return last week.

Between November and March, on the bench is largely where Fowler found herself, to the dismay of those in her native Australia especially. But while fans Down Under have long known just how special a talent she is, the youngster is now proving it some 10,000 miles from home – and she’s doing it right when the pressure is heating up as Man City pursue a first WSL title in eight years.

GettyWaiting patiently

When Fowler returned to Manchester after last summer’s Women’s World Cup, it felt like she had to be given a shot in the team. The previous year, in her first season at the club, the forward had struggled for opportunities, failing to start a single league game after joining from Montpellier. However, her starring role in Australia’s run to a World Cup semi-final proved that she could do it on the biggest stage and, in turn, she found herself in the starting line up for City's first six games of the WSL season.

But City have a very competitive squad, and she slipped out of Gareth Taylor’s XI in mid-November, not to return until mid-March. Kelly and Lauren Hemp locked down the wide roles as Taylor alternated between Filippa Angeldahl and Laura Coombs to join Yui Hasegawa and Jill Roord in the midfield, while Jess Park took her chance to secure the latter’s position after a devastating ACL injury. Fowler was left on the sidelines.

“I think I always try to have the mindset that, whether I'm on the field or off the field, I just try to bring my best to the team,” she told on Sunday, speaking of that time out of the team. “Having been on the side for a while, I just tried to stay focused in training and make sure I could be a good team-mate on the sides. [I would] just believe that I was going to get my chance and make sure that when I did, that I was ready for it.”

AdvertisementGettyForcing her way in

That chance came in March, when Fowler started in place of Kelly on the right in an FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham. The result didn’t go the Cityzens’ way, Spurs emerging victorious on penalties, but there was a lot to like in Fowler’s performance and Taylor has stuck with her ever since, a decision which surprised some in England simply because it meant dropping a player of Kelly’s calibre, a Lionesses star.

"It's just basically we have good players,” Taylor said of Kelly’s place on the bench. “We put Mary into the FA Cup game, she scores. She scores against Brighton last week. Mary's a very good player. Of course, the demands are really high of what we ask for, in kind of goals and assists from those players, without it being all about that. But Mary has taken her opportunity and now what Chloe has to do is work hard every day in training to be ready.”

GettyProving her worth

While many focused on Kelly’s lack of game time, Fowler was justifying her place and then some. In her six games back in the City XI, the Australia star has scored three goals and provided three assists, helping her team win all five league games to assume a six-point lead at the top of the WSL table.

“She’s a top player and a top person to work with as well,” Taylor said recently. “As well as all of her quality that she has – she's one of the best finishers I've seen and we're still waiting for her to really unleash with the goals – I think the biggest compliment you can pay to Mary is she is really reliable with and without the ball. She works so hard for the team defensively. She's reliable in possession and we need that. She's reliable with the ball, she looks after the ball in one-v-one situations.

“She's a unique kind of person and unique player really, Mary. She's very calm, very level-headed and doesn't get too excited about praise and doesn't get too down in the low moments. That's a really good way of being. We've given her a platform to play. She feels more comfortable now probably than she had done previously, and we're seeing good things from her."

GettySomething different

What Fowler has brought to the team since her return to the XI is something different, too. Hemp and Kelly are versatile players, as showcased by their abilities to play through the middle, but they often perform as more traditional wingers in this City team, the type that will stick to their side and use their speed to drive at the full-back with the aim of whipping in a cross.

Fowler, meanwhile, is a little less direct, she likes to drift inside and she gets more involved in the build-up play as a result, often resulting in her causing a threat in central areas rather than just on the wing. An ability to use both feet brilliantly certainly helps her, too. Indeed, her first goal against Bristol last Sunday, a fierce strike into the top corner from the edge of the box, was with her left foot while her second, a sweeping finish from Hemp’s cross, came off her right.

"She can go both ways, that's the thing with Mary – left foot, right foot – and obviously that then allows Lauren to drift sometimes and she'll end up on the right,” Taylor noted earlier this season. “She's a really good team player is what I would say with Mary. She's really good for the team."