Old Gold: new beginning?
My fortnightly newsletter on women's football, past and present.
The last couple of weeks have seen me whip down to Wembley to watch England v Spain (cracking game), exclusively interview members of the QPR set-up (for the second time this season), and be part of a media event with Wolves Women who are vying for promotion after last year’s close run - and kick in the teeth from the club.
Although the WSL still has a few games left, tiers 3 and 4 are finishing up this weekend and there are still promotion spots up for grabs.
Now
I’ve spoken a lot about the FA Women’s National League (FAWNL) over the past few months and that’s because it’s a really exciting league that’s often overlooked.
Currently in tier 3, the FAWNL Northern Premier Division race to win the league is going down to the final day. Promotion to the professional WSL2 league is at stake with the first placed team getting automatic promotion and the second placed team going into a play-off against the Southern Prem runners-up Plymouth Argyle, for the bonus second spot in the WSL2 (a one-off due to expansion of the WSL).
The already professional team Burnley are on 59 points and second-placed semi-pro team Wolves are on 58 points. Anything could happen later today when Burnley face Stoke City and Wolves face Halifax.
The Southern Prem is decided, with Watford getting the automatic spot - with the play-off final to come for Plymouth Argyle.
Division One South West (tier 4) is also down to the wire with two teams I’ve spoken to this year fighting for promotion: Moneyfields on 58 points and Swindon Town on 57. The tension!
There’s is so much exciting football happening in this part of the pyramid.
Then
Wolves women were fighting for promotion at the end of last season. Again they took it to the final game of the season, against full-time team Nottingham Forest.
They just fell short and finished second. As it turns, out, that may have been just as well.
Shortly after the final whistle, the team were told that their parent club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, had failed to submit a bid for promotion to WSL2. The process is long and the application to compete in the second tier has to be submitted in February. Of course, they may not win promotion but they have to go through this application, just in case.
Without the application being submitted, it wouldn’t have mattered if they’d won the league - they wouldn’t have been able to be promoted.
The players and manager, Dan McNamara were left devastated.
Somehow, they managed to carry on to get to this point again. And with the correct paperwork.
The team itself as been around for 50 years and have been building towards promotion for several seasons - coming really close multiple time.
I spoke to McNamara a few days ago and the team feel that rising from the ashes of last season’s devastating news, has made this season feel different. The Old Gold have my full support for their final games of the season.
Words written of the new book
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Pages of research
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Vintage match programmes acquired in the name of research
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