Ahead of the game, speculation had surrounded the utilisation of Clinton on her long-awaited arrival in United’s senior squad.
The notion of playing two creative attacking midfielders in tandem by naming both Grace and Ella Toone in the starting XI might have appeared fanciful in theory, but the pair had linked up to great effect on the international stage back in February, after which Reds legend Toone admitted: “I absolutely loved it [playing with Grace]. She’s a great player, a lot of talent, very good on the ball. To link up with her, we’ve never done that before, we’ve never played together but it felt so natural. I knew where she was and she knew where I was as well, so it was really nice.”
In the run-up to the 2024/25 curtain raiser at Old Trafford, Clinton had returned the compliment, saying: “She makes me feel so comfortable. I do love playing with her and we’ve done well so far. We’ve been on the same team in pre-season. Obviously, I don’t know what that looks like when the league starts but for me, if I get to play with her, then I’ll be really, really happy.”
The results spoke for themselves and, after the pair had both caught the eye in advanced positions against the Hammers, Grace admitted that it had been a tactical triumph for manager Marc Skinner.
“With the quality that we have in our team, obviously with Tooney in there as another 10, it would be silly not to utilise our strengths,” she said. “I think it worked perfectly, but there’s a lot more still to come. It was a good game but there’s a lot to come from us.”
