Stoke City Ladies
It ’ s also rewarding to build a team of players that want to play for themselves , for yourself and for each other ; players who are prepared to put their neck on the line for the cause . Creating a family is a big philosophy of mine .
The hardest part will always be to manage the selection of two squads , first and reserve , knowing there will be girls without game time at a weekend . It ’ s not the tactics or anything like that ; it ’ s keeping the players who are perhaps not quite up to speed , fitness or ability wise , interested in the sport .”
Atmosphere
“ We ’ re going through a transition period at present due to me returning as first-team coach , but as I have been involved with the club for a number of years it isn ’ t too much of a problem ; it ’ s more a change of roles rather than faces , which is far easier for players to deal with . The girls certainly seem to be optimistic at the moment and so am I .”
This Season
Proud
Sponsors of Stoke City Ladies FC
“ It ’ s been a bit up and down for the first team but bearing in mind we ’ ve lost some big names and had an influx of Centre of Excellence players the season has been good . On paper after last season you ’ d expect us to be pushing for the title , but with big changes and a very young side , we ’ ve done well . Our reserves have been superb , reaching the top of the Reserve Midland Division and have done fantastically well .
We ’ d like to go unbeaten through to the end of the season . I really believe that should be the aim and we are more than capable of doing so . We ’ ve got some tough games , but we have to believe in our ability . On our day we can beat anyone and we proved that by beating top of the table Middlesbrough 5-1 in the last game of 2016 .”
Community
“ We ’ ve got a nice balance at Stoke City Ladies . We ’ ve nurtured a high number of girls through our Centre of Excellence which has given us the opportunity to work with some of the best talent in the region . Our venue at Community Drive is based in the heart of Smallthorne in Stoke-on-Trent and we ’ re in the fortunate and rare position of exclusivity of our own ground .
We ’ re very proud of what we ’ ve achieved . With the help of volunteers , we transformed the ground into our very own home last summer and the location has enabled us to grow our support base this season .”
Challenges / Ambitions
“ Having younger players , there ’ s a massive draw for girls to get scholarships in Northern America . Keeping hold of the talent that is eligible for those scholarships is always tough . We also need to manage expectations . We ’ ve built ourselves a decent reputation in recent years and we ’ ve been on an upward trajectory so we need to keep our feet on the ground .
Our ambition is to reach the Super League . That ’ s where all clubs would like to be and we need to make sure we ’ re prepared on and off the pitch for Super League football . That is the only aim of this football club . We ’ re currently one step away from WSL2 and it ’ s a more than achievable target . Off the pitch we ’ ve expended so many man hours getting our new ground right and whilst we look at it with a lot of pride , we can now put more time into improving matters on the pitch to reach that target .” www . footballfocus . biz 57