Wrexham Women Set The Standard
It would take something really special to overshadow the spectacular show Wrexham put on to wallop Grimsby Town on Saturday, but Sunday’s remarkable game managed just that.
Our first match in the Adran Premier, Welsh women’s football’s top tier, was magnificent in so many ways. Regardless of the outcome it was an historic occasion, but to perform so well against a side which is always in the top two of the division, and played in the Champions League last season, was nothing short of a delight.
he game I was aware of the possibility that a newly-promoted side could be handed a harsh lesson by a team of such pedigree. After the game I could see we will be just fine against such opposition.
Yes, we had to suffer at times, but all teams do. The way we sliced through City’s defence with pace on the break was sensational, and the long balls of new signing Louisha Doran are going to earn her a lot of assists with Rosie Hughes latching onto them!
We led 2-0 with 15 minutes left, and went 3-2 up in the 89th minute, but a cruel deflection in the 94th minute denied us the three points. A shame, but we’d declared our arrival in the Adran Premier in style.
When the second season of “Welcome to Wrexham” hits our screens, interest in the women’s team will explode again. They’ll feature a lot more in the show, and people will get to know the players better.
However, the women’s team are in a different situation to the men. There still isn’t much money in the women’s game in Wales, so when we watch the players representing our club, we have to remember that they are fitting training and playing in with their careers.
The step up to semi-professionalism has definitely helped this season, but the pay rises we’re talking about are not mind-blowing; instead, they’re enough money to justify travelling for training, or continuing to make the sacrifices our players make to represent Wrexham AFC.
A North American audience, in particular, will be naturally inclined to assume the women’s game has similar status to the men’s in the UK. That’s because the women’s game is probably more developed in the USA and Canada than anywhere else in the world. The women’s league is given a more elevated status and can challenge the MLS in popularity, while the USWNT are as popular as the USMNT, not least because they win tournaments!
The terrific success of the England team, and the overdue but very welcome coverage given to the WPL, has given an immense boost to the women’s game in the UK, but that hasn’t really reached the Welsh League.
Instead, the force which promises to revolutionise the Welsh game is Wrexham, not only because the league will get a terrific amount of publicity from “Welcome to Wrexham”, but because the likes of Cardiff and Swansea are liable to put more emphasis on their women’s teams in order to avoid the embarrassment of being overtaken by northern upstarts like us!
I just hope that the F.A.W. take advantage of this terrific opportunity to build the profile of their own league. It seems to me that they often make decisions which actually limit the development of the women’s game.
For example, holding the youth cup final on the same day as the promotion play-off might seem like an attractive stunt, but they’re hurting the development of the game by favouring a gimmick over rewarding merit or supporting player development.
Last season, because both matches featured Wrexham, our youth team had to play Cardiff City with a number of their players missing, because they were up next in the promotion final. Gareth Owen’s youngsters were absolutely outstanding, but ended up losing 2-0.
It’s not as if this was a freak occurrence which couldn’t be foreseen by the FAW either: exactly the same scenario had played out the season before! We had to field a seriously weakened side, and were beaten 5-0 despite a superb first half in which we held a powerful Cardiff side at bay.
We won’t have to worry about that scenario this season, but it’s the sort of short-sighted decision that could really hamper the women’s game in Wales. Let’s hope the positive force a popular, resurgent Wrexham side is will be able to overcome bureaucratic interference.
