A statue of one of the legends of Leigh rugby league, rather than Sir Matt Busby's Holy Trinity, dominates the concourse at Manchester United Women's home ground, 15 miles from Old Trafford, where autograph hunters were in short supply on Friday as the players walked to the neighbouring leisure centre.
But there's nothing low key about the next eight days for the team which United belatedly announced it was forming, 12 months ago. They took the plunge in women's football's second tier last August, not wanting to risk an inaugural season of struggle in the elite league. But it has not been plain sailing.
The top two go up, and United simply have to secure promotion first time. Anything less would be humiliating for a side whose budget far outweighs anything in the division.
Manchester United women's manager Casey Stoney wants her side to earn promotion this year
United have six games to go and are second, two points behind Tottenham, who have played a game more. Third-placed Charlton have given everyone a run for their money, and United face the two sides in the space of little more than a week.
With their regular 2,000 home crowds, a songbook of anthems and the general impression — flawed, according to manager Casey Stoney — that they have a huge budget, they have discovered soon enough how it feels to be the side everyone wants to beat. They faced a physical Durham side on Astroturf and lost.
The story of these last 12 months is a little more nuanced than one of the world's biggest brands splashing the cash about. United's bid to join the FA Women's Championship, lodged in February last year, was formally accepted by the governing body a mere four weeks before the start of the season, leaving Stoney to embark on a concentrated recruitment campaign. Three players arrived in the last 24 hours, but it was not purely an exercise in hoovering up players from clubs like Everton, Juventus and Doncaster Belles.
Manchester United took the plunge in women's football's second tier last August
'They've developed players too,' says Lucy Ward, the former Leeds and England defender, now an analyst for the BBC and BT Sport. Five of the players United recruited were 18. The average age
