Goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse was the hero as Charlton Athletic won promotion to the Women’s Super League on Saturday – nearly two decades after the team was almost closed down.

Whitehouse saved four out of the five penalties after a tense play-off at The Valley against Leicester City finished 0-0 after extra time. The Foxes were relegated to WSL2, with Charlton replacing them in the higher league.

Her final save, from Noemie Mouchon, was the most significant from a Charlton goalkeeper since Sasa Ilic caught Michael Gray’s shot at Wembley to take the men into the Premier League in 1998.

Promotion to England’s top tier will lead to a huge boost in the Addicks’ profile in the women’s game: while WSL2 is largely ignored in the media, the WSL gets live coverage on Sky Sports and the BBC.

But facing the country’s richest sides will be a huge challenge for a club with no billionaire backer and that lacks the riches that comes from being part of the men’s Premier League.

The Guardian reported that the boost in income from promotion would be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, rather than the  millions spent by clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City.

The Addicks did have one of the top women’s sides in the country after taking over Croydon in 2000, winning the FA Cup in 2005. But after the men’s side were relegated from the Premier League in 2007, Charlton withdrew its support from the women’s team. The club’s community trust took over on a much-reduced budget, and later the side was re-established as a standalone entity in the third tier.

Promotion to what is now WSL2 came five years later and the side became fully professional in 2021 when Danish-American owner Thomas Sandgaard merged it back into the club. However, Sandgard also alienated fans by trying to rename them “Charlton Ladies”.

Two seasons ago the club moved to The Valley full-time after winning funding for a new hybrid pitch – where they will now welcome the giants of the women’s game such as Arsenal and Manchester United. 

Charlton will be hoping that promotion brings an increase in crowds at The Valley, which have numbered in their hundreds despite the side being top of WSL2 for much of the season. Saturday’s match had a crowd of 3,979 – the largest ever for a women’s match at The Valley.

Season tickets have been priced at only £65 for the club’s debut in the top flight – although those prices will increase after Tuesday.  

Karen Hills, the side’s manager who won the FA Cup as a player with Charlton, told the South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition newsletter: ““Management is an emotional rollercoaster at the best of times, but to do what we’ve done today makes me so proud.

“The temperature today was incredible but these players were remarkable. I really wanted to put Charlton Women back on the map, in terms of our identity and the way that we play. That was my ambition and dream. Thankfully these players have delivered a world-class performance for me today.”

Whitehouse told BBC Sport: “I don’t even know what to say. It was the craziest thing ever. I just thought ‘I need to save it’ and that’s what I did I guess.

“We pushed to the last minute and to the end of the game. Those are the moments I’ve been working for. 

“We’ve been practising penalties for weeks and once it got to that moment, I knew we could do it.”

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