About Me
Rachel began her career in football as the first girl to play for Walsall Boys when she was picked for the under 10s side. From there she went to Wolves Woman where she swept through the ranks moving from the intermediaries to the first team inside two seasons.
She won her first medal in 1998 with the reserves in the West Midlands League and the Birmingham County Cup the following season scoring one of the goals in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa. She also went forward in the FA regional trials in 1988 and made her international debut at U18 level in a 1-1 draw against Holland. She also scored a hat-trick at this level in 7-0 win against the Faroes during the 1999 UEFA U18 qualifying tournement. As a first team regular at Wolves she also got amoung the goals scoring 12 in season 1999/2000. Wolves just missed out on promotion that year but Rachel made to the National League when she signed for Everton Ladies.
After a season with Everton Rachel had the opportunity to play professional football with Fulham L.F.C. Her first national trophy being the Premire League Cup in 2002. She followed this up a few months with the Premire League North title and the FA Cup. The following season she was part of Fulham's domestic treble winning side in 02/03 season and made an appearance in the UEFA Cup reaching the quarter-final stage. After having its funding withdrawn in 2004 however, Fulham went into a quick decline and Rachel moved back to Everton.
Unitt broke into the full international side in 2000, with her debut in an away game to France. She was part of the side that went to the 2001 European Championships and bcame a regular at left back. She scored her first international goal in a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in September 2004, and went on to score two more in her home town of Walsall during England's 4-1 victory over the Czech Republic in May 2005.
Rachel spent her birthday at Manchester City's ground for the opening game of Euro 05 against Finland. She almost got amoung the goals too, in a dramatic 3-2 win. Sadly this was the high point of a disappointing tournament. A few weeks later though, Rachel was playing in the US with W-League side New Jersey Wildcats for the last seven games of their season. She picked up another medal to add to her collection as well when the Wildcats won the W-League, beating the Ottawa Fury Women by 3-0 in the championship match. She also got on the score sheet scoring the crucial first goal to make up for the disappointment of the European Championships and being runner up to Charlton in the FA Cup.
Rachel has continued with Everton becoming league runners up in 2005/06 season, and getting a place in the Community Sheild. She also played a big part in England's qualification for the 2007 World Cup taking one for the team when she was injured in the last qualifing match against France. The injury saw her miss a lot of season 06/07 and she struggled to hold on to her England place and was on the bench for the finals in China. However she make a return to European football however scoring in a 4-0 opening win against Gintra in Lithuania and the team at present are doing well in domestic competition with Everton reaching the semis in the WPL Cup.
Rachel has twice been named as England Women's Player of the Year in 2004 and 2006 and has at present a sponsorship deal with sport and lifestyle brand Puma.
