Paris puts her foot on the accelerator to help drive the Women’s team forward as they target more FA Cup success

High speed motorbike chases and fending off armed criminals are all part of the day job for Paris Smith.

Off the pitch, the Darts striker works for the MO7 Interceptor Unit in the Met Police, with a three-year stint in the riot squad, before.

On Sunday, she’s got a different target in her sights altogether.

The Women’s team made history by making it through to the third round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup last month in front of a record crowd.

Now, Paris and the rest of the squad are aiming for round four – when the biggest teams in the country join the prestigious competition.

She said: “Winning the last game meant everything to us all. We’ve obviously finished second in the league for the past few seasons, so an amazing cup run will be up there with promotion, should we finally achieve it.

“I made it to the fourth round once before with Billericay in 2020 when we drew 1-1 and lost on pens. So my ambition is to do it again with Dartford and take it even further.

“But we concentrate on one match at a time – and Sunday’s match is all we are focussed on right now.”

Paris, 35, began her football career at the Leighton Orient Centre of Excellence, before playing for West Ham Ladies and Billericay, then joining The Darts four seasons ago.

She said: “I’ve been playing football since I was five. All my cousins are male and older than me, so we would always play together.

“Mum tried to take me ballet dancing and stuff like that, but I wasn’t interested. It was always football and I guess my uncle had a big part to play in that as he was really into it.”

Back then, there weren’t the opportunities for girls in football that there are today – something Paris is delighted to see improve.

She continued: “It’s unbelievable. I honestly didn’t think I’d still be playing and see this amount of progress. It’s just a joy how quickly it is coming along for all the girls today.

“Recently, I did some student-teaching stuff at work and I did a presentation on the history of women’s football. And I told them the story about how many women used to play and how it was banned (read more about this in a recent interview, here). The men in the room were gobsmacked to be honest, I still don’t think many people know about it.”

Paris currently works in the MO7 Interceptor Unit for the Met Police, often in high-speed pursuit of criminals in a car or on a motorbike.

A self-confessed ‘motorhead’ who often rides her Suzuki GSX-S750 motorbike to matches at Princes Park, it means she’s in her element.

She said: “I’m always on my motorbike or driving. I bought my first car when I was 16. It was sitting on the drive ready for me for the day I turned 17!

“My dad likes his cars. He always had different cars all the time. But it’s something I’ve always been interested in. It’s something a little bit different and gives me a bit of an edge at work and gives me another skill that a lot of females don’t have in the job.

“It’s the reason I moved across to the role now. Anyone committing crime on motorbikes or any vehicle-based crime, we go out in marked and unmarked cars, and motorbikes, so yeah, I get to drive nice cars and fast motorbikes!”

Before this, Paris worked in the TSG Riot Squad, often getting deployed to some of the country’s biggest riots.

She said: “When you’re in the TSG, you’re the most highly trained, and you get sent in at the last minute to riots when it’s all gone really bad.

“You go on specialist training every six weeks, training for Notting Hill, or stadium issues, or just general riots – you get petrol bombs thrown at you and train for all eventualities.

“I wanted to move into vehicles, but interestingly enough, we’ve just been told we’re now going to be trained again from the vehicles, and we’ll do our day-to-day job and then if it all kicks off and London starts burning, we’ll be deployed as public order officers. So, I’ve got a bit of the best of both worlds.”

The off-pitch career does mean that injuries and nerves don’t faze her – and all the extra training has kept her fit.

She continued: “I got run over on New Year’s Eve a few years ago while just doing a stop. That was quite bad. He put his foot down and hit me in order to get away. Thankfully, there was nothing broken!

“But I guess the job does mean not a lot affects me. If I’m chasing a motorbike, and then they have a crash, or they get knocked off, and I’m on my own, navigating it is a lot more nerve-wracking than standing on a football pitch and kicking a football. I think that’s how I rationalise it in my head.

“It has also meant we get a bit of time at work to train. I’ve always been very active. And even though work can make it tough to be around for football training all the time, I’ve been one of the lucky guys that’s not had the big knee injuries or any major injuries.”

Now, it’s the big match on Sunday. As one of the vocal players in the side, how is Paris looking at the match and what will be her rallying cry before they get on the pitch?

She added: “I love the big games. As a Club and team there’s still a long way to go, but we’re all definitely moving in the right direction.

“We’ve got the fans coming every week. We are like their friends, their family, now, and they’re always supporting us, and it means so much.

“I still can’t get my head around that there’s now these young girls wanting my signature, and you realise the impact you’re actually having and hopefully inspiring the next generations.

“I’m not one for nerves, but I do like it when I get nervous. And I think as we’re progressing, playing the bigger teams and the better teams, they’re the games that you will remember forever.

“To get through and draw one of the big clubs would be an amazing experience.

“I’ll get a bit more rest this week than I did before the last match and I’ve got a couple of days off.

“I’ve been big into my circuits recently, so I’ll ease off them towards the end of the week, just to make sure that I’m as fit and ready to go as I can be.

“I think the younger girls can be a bit scared of me being in the police, but I like to say my piece. I think that’s one of my roles within the team, to get everyone else up for the fight.

“I’ll be telling them if we work harder and run harder, just like we’ve been doing all season, we’ll win. Just play our game and win your personal battles and we will win this game.”

And at the final whistle, if the girls can get the win, I predict a riot. But a riot that Paris, for once, will only be too happy to be in the middle of.

Dartford Women take on London Bees in the third round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup at Princes Park on December 14th, KO at 1pm. The match is sponsored by BVL Scaffolding. Please come along to support our brilliant team!

Photos from Kicks and Click and Joe Kwok