On Sunday the women’s team lifted the Sussex County League Cup, after a dominant 5-0 win over Hailsham Town.
Goals from Kellie Larkin, Izzy Payne, Ruby Starkey, Charlotte Gurr and Megan Griffths completed a very successful season, in which the team have won the League (without conceding a goal), the League Cup (without conceding a goal), the County Trophy and also the Eastbourne Chairman’s Cup.
As far as I’m aware it’s a unique quadruple which has never been done in Sussex by a women’s side.
The team also reached the semi final of the National Midweek Cup, losing out to a very strong Watford team. This game brought in a record crowd of over 270, and shows the interest and support that is out there for the women’s game.
My promise to Simon and Alan when I came in, was to professionalise everything we do around the side – we have brought in a physical performance lead to ensure we are fitter and stronger, player care to ensure the team are individually supported around the challenges of high performance, a goalkeeper coach, and individual development programmes for each player to ensure they make their strengths into super strengths.
In summary it’s high support to get high performance. The progress of the group has been outstanding, and we have a super competitive environment which also nurtures development of talent.
Alongside this we launched a brand new u18s side led by Tyler Henshaw, 7 of whom made their debuts for the first team, and the squad also made two finals of their own. Playing in the Junior Premier League against team like Fulham and Crystal Palace was a huge step up, but we are confident this season we can establish them to be one of the best u18 sides around.
Looking ahead to next season the women’s will be promoted to Tier 6, which will mean a brand new league (the London Regional South), and more challenging games. Alongside this we will also be in the Women’s FA Cup for the first time ever, exciting times! We are also bringing the clubs u16 girls team into the Pathway, to ensure players are more prepared for the jump up to the u18s.
We know full well there will be a target on our back, but we are confident that with a full squad and some recruitment of key targets we can compete at the next level. The players have 6 weeks off now, but will all be on pre pre season programmes to ensure we hit the ground running in July.
I’d personally like to thank Simon and Alan for their commitment to developing a high level women’s programme, and all the supporters throughout the season that have been at both the home and away games. it’s been a pleasure being welcomed into the Borough family and I look forward to us continuing the journey together next season.
Up the Borough!
Chris
