Derby County L.F.C.

Derby County Ladies
Full name Derby County Ladies Football Club
Nickname(s) The Ewes
Founded 1989
Ground Watkinson Construction Bowl, Spondon, Derby
Capacity 5000 (250 seated)
Chairman Duncan Gibb
Manager Jenny Sugarman
League FA Women's Premier League Northern Division
2013–14 7th, FA Women's Premier League Northern Division

Derby County Ladies Football Club is an English women's football club affiliated with Derby County F.C.. The first team currently plays in the FA Women's Premier League Northern Division.[1] In 2008–09 they won the Midland Combination Women's Football League, beating Crewe 4–2 at Pride Park in the decisive match.[2]

They also run a reserve team and seven junior teams competing in the Nottinghamshire Girls League, Burton Junior League and the Central Warwickshire Girls League.

The club has a relationship with the Derby County Girls Centre of Excellence, allowing a dedicated player pathway from youth football into the Derby County Ladies senior squads.[3]

History

The club that was to become Derby County LFC started as the idea of Sheila Rollinson and Jess Reid, who at the time were both playing for the Coventry ladies side Holbrooks Athletic. But Sheila had recently moved to the Derby area and Jess lived in Burton, so they came up with the idea of forming a new, local team to save travelling. Adverts for players went in both the Burton Mail and the Derby Evening Telegraph and at that time more of the replies came from the Burton area, so Burton Wanderers was born. The club’s first season was 1978/9 in the Midland League (which later became the West Midlands League) playing at Shobnall Fields in Burton with Phil Rollinson as manager and Bob Reid as secretary. Training sessions were in Bitham school hall – really more of a gym – but we managed.

After one season in the Midland league the club decided to move to the Nottingham League (later the East Midlands League) where the standard of football was much higher. There was no National league then, so the club regularly played against teams such as the mighty Doncaster Belles which contained most of the England team at the time. It’s also worth remembering that there were no junior leagues then, and girls were not allowed to play in boys’ teams, so we often had 11, 12, 13 year olds playing alongside adults in the ladies teams as otherwise there was nowhere for them to play. It seems incredible now, but it worked at the time.

With the demise of Derby Rangers a number of experienced players joined the club to strengthen it, and also Maggit (later a manager) joined us from local rivals Burton Robins. In the mid-1980s the Beacon Hotel decided to sponsor the club and the name changed to Beacon Wanderers. During this time Dave Elks had a long spell as manager and Malcolm Aldridge a shorter time. Gradually the balance of players swung more to the Derby area and as the club name no longer included Burton it seemed sensible to move matches and training to Derby. For a while Leesbrook school was the venue for both but eventually the Derby City ground Parker’s Piece became home.

When John Jarman started the Community Department at DCFC in 1990 he started discussion with the club which resulted in the formation of Derby County Ladies FC. At that time the club consisted of a single open-age team, but grew to include both a reserve team and even a third team at one point (there had to be somewhere for Sheila to play as she got older....). I think the first manager of DCLFC was Neil Crofts whose daughter Ali was one of those 11 year olds who could take on players twice her age! Marie Wayne was another.....

1993 the FA was instructed by UEFA to take over the running of Women’s football and began to restructure the Women’s leagues, setting up the National League by taking the top clubs from around the country.

Training for DCLFC was at the now defunct Ramarena and at least one FA cup tie was played on a grass pitch there.

In 1996 Jenny Simpson and Leanne Beet joined Derby from the very successful Calverton team. The Midland Combination league was created between the Regional leagues to create a pathway for promotion and Derby County became members of this new league. Maggit and Deb Newham were the first female managers of the club.

In 1997 Raf Long was introduced to the club as he needed to get in some coaching hours for his UEFA B licence – and only left in 2013 after many years as Chairman of the club.

FA brought in a rule which prevented u14s playing in senior football. In 2000/01 after years of Derbyshire promising to start junior leagues, and having seen good players go elsewhere to join the new junior teams that were springing up, DCLFC recruited their first “official” junior squads and had u14s and u12s competing in Notts Girls League for first time. Both teams achieved a league and cup double – with Steve Hall managing an u14 team which included Precious Hamilton.

2001/2 Richard Astle was now the manager of the first team and due in part to a split with many of the Reserves leaving to form Sandiacre Town, the club struggled for players. It was a difficult season, but relegation to the Unison East Midlands League came in the penultimate game against Stafford Rangers when an equaliser for Stafford in the 9th minute of injury time meant that both teams went down.

2002/3 was a good season, with the first team consolidating their position in the Unison East Midlands League, which won by local rivals Nottingham Forest. They also lost narrowly to the same team in the cup semi-final. Forest also triumphed at U12 level, where Derby had to be content with runners-up slot in both the League and the Cup competitions. The u14s maintained their magnificent record in the Notts Girls League to make it three League Championships in consecutive seasons and brought the trophy home from the Skegness tournament over the May Day holiday. The U16s surprised many more established sides in the Central Warwickshire League and only lost out to Wolves in the Cup Final on penalties.

2003/4 saw DCLFC strengthened by the addition of two U10 teams and a senior reserve side. The First team had a great season under new manager Steve Hall who moved up from the u16s with a great batch of talented players. They lead the table at times but eventually had to settle for second place and also lost by a single goal in the Cup final to eventual champions Leicester City. The Reserves battled their way to a creditable mid-table position in their first ever season. The U10s were outstanding, coming both winners and runners-up in the league and cup and the U12s were also unstoppable in the Notts girls league and completed a double to which they added the Skegness tournament trophy. In their first season in the Central Warks, the U14s finished in an impressive 3rd place and were champions in their Bank-holiday tournament at Bognor. The U16s led the league for much of the season but had a poor run-in with a fixture list that stretched for weeks at a time without a game, but the battle in the highly competitive Central Warks league was as tough as ever.

2004/5 was probably the most successful ever in the club's history. The First team completed a league and cup double in the Unison East Midlands Premier Division and thus gained promotion to the next level of the Women's Football Pyramid, the Midland Combination League. The Reserves finished a creditable third in the newly formed Reserve division, and will also move up to play in the Combination League. The U16s gained the first ever trophies for the club from the Central Warks League by finishing runners-up, while the U14s had to settle for third place - and considering the number of the squad who were tasting 11-a-side football for the first time this was a great achievement. Two U12 sides had to compete in the same division of the Notts Girls League, and the Black team came runners-up with the Whites not far behind. The U10s were unstoppable, amassing an amazing 100% record for the season and collecting the cup as well.

2005/6 saw Derby County Ladies participation as a founder member of the inaugural FA Midland Centre of Excellence programme, with teams competing at U16 and U14 age group. Our participation in the programme reaped immediate reward in the form of England recognition for U16 captain Cara Newton. The first team enjoyed a season of consolidation, finishing a creditable 4th in their first season in the Midland Combination League. Notable results included a seven goal mauling of TNS (who were league leaders at the time) in January, and a single goal victory over league champions Crewe in the last game of the season. The Reserves also competed admirably in their first season in the Midland Combination Reserves League. 2005-06 saw the introduction of two teams at U14 and U12 level for the first time. The U14 Development squad finished a creditable mid table in their first season and enjoyed two big wins against Pegasus (16-0) and Rainworth (15-0) during the campaign. It was the junior sides which provided the biggest success for the club in this season. The U12 7-a-side team finished runners up in the Notts Girls League, whilst the U12 11-a-side girls brought home the league and cup double, including an unbeaten league programme with ten clean sheets. The U10 girls narrowly missed out on league success following an exciting campaign involving three teams at the top which went down to the wire. The disappointment of the U10 missing out on the league title was made up for by winning the cup.

2008-9 First team win Midland Combination after 4-2 win over Crewe in final League game at Pride Park to gain promotion. Also won the cup. Reserves won reserve Cup. U16s league and Cup double (again) in Central Warks. U12s double, u10s double in Notts Girls league. U14 team in BJFL for 1st time. 2008/09 also saw an official partnership with Derby County F.C. for the first time.[4]

2009/10 Tough baptism in the WFA women’s premier league. Needing two points from the last two games to ensure we stayed in the league, Derby travelled to Villa for a midweek fixture. Arriving at the game with about 30 minutes remaining the Rams were losing 2-0 but staged a brilliant come-back with a fantastic Emily Jeffery strike sealing a 3-2 victory. Just as well really, as we went on to lose 2-1 to the already relegated Luton Town in our final game.

2010/11 Steve Hall’s final season as manager.

2011/12 John Bennett returned to the club as first team manager when John Townson’s brief spell in charge was halted when he was given a professional contract closer to home.

2013/14 Saw the welcoming of FA Regional Coach John Griffiths as Director of Football in what was to be a memorable last season in the reigns of John Bennett. John Bennett guided the club to a respectable 7th place finish in the Women's Northern Premier League whilst the club adopted a whole new playing philosophy. The 1st team also won the Derbyshire County Cup, making it the third consecutive county cup triumph in a row beating Sandiacre Town 6-2 in the final. Lorna Abbey retired after an amazing 13 years playing for the club and captaining the senior team.

Colours and badge

The playing colours of Derby County Ladies FC are identical to those of parent club Derby County F.C. – The club crest of Derby County Ladies in 2009/10 is similar to that adopted by the men's club from 2007–09. A ram facing to the left is surrounded by a circular frame featuring 'Derby County Ladies Football Club' in gold lettering.

Stadium

Derby County Ladies play at the Watkinson Construction Bowl, home ground of Borrowash Victoria A.F.C..

Current squad

As of 7th August 2014


Notable former players

Honours

Staff

Role Name
1st Team Manager Jenny Sugarman
1st Team Assisant Manager / GK Coach Jenny Simpson
1st Team Coach Gemma Davies
Reserve Team Manager Ash Abbey
Sport Scientist James Moore
Director of Football John Griffiths
Head Physiotherapist Hannah Cornell
Performance Analyst Richard Allen

References

  1. ↑ "FA Women's Premier League". TheFA.com. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  2. ↑ "Derby County Promoted to Premier League". Fair Game Magazine. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  3. ↑ "About Derby County Ladies". Derby County Football Club. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  4. ↑ "Women's Football: Derby County Ladies bid for promotion". Derby Telegraph. Retrieved 22 April 2010.

External links