FAWPL Northern Division leaders Blackburn Rovers are within touching distance of taking the title and if the chance came, they believe they’d be ready for the WSL too…
Despite reluctance in the past, FAWPL Northern Division champions-elect Blackburn Rovers will be applying to take their rightful place in the WSL – should they come through the end of season play-off successfully WRITES PAUL NICHOLSON.
With only four points needed from their final six games, the title appears to be a formality for the unbeaten runaway leaders, after which, attention will turn to that end of season play-off game against their Southern Division counterparts.
Although manager Gemma Donnelly told She Kicks that the WSL application will be submitted, she also advised that, being part of the Blackburn Rovers Professional Football Club family, it will be they who make any final decision on the future direction of the Ladies’ team.
She said: “I would like to place on record that we do have the infrastructure in place, and we’ve probably had the infrastructure in place for a number of seasons now, with regard to facilities and Talent Centre of Excellence, now RTC (Regional Talent Centre), being a tier one club, and Blackburn Rovers Professional Football Club have backed us enormously over a period of years.
“Everything has changed, and we will be submitting a Super League application.
“As I always say, we’re embedded into the professional football club, and Blackburn Rovers will have the ultimate say as to the direction of Blackburn Rovers Ladies, but I can confirm that we’re putting in an application.
“We’ve reached a very good standard in the league, so I guess we’ll just have to see what happens at the end of the season.”
Blackburn, for so long, have been the almost side of the WPL, having only finished outside the top four once in the past five seasons, and finishing third in three of them.
The table-topping Blackburn Rovers team (Colin Shorrock)
But this season has seen them streak away from the pack – winning 13 and drawing one of their 14 games so far – something Donnelly puts down to bringing in the right experienced players, but more importantly, a change in their philosophy, by looking at the season in small chunks, and not the bigger picture, as a way of taking pressure off the players.
“It’s probably been a consequence of having changed the format, if you like, this season, in terms of target-setting, albeit I [personally] did a bit of a recruitment drive over the summer to bring in some added personnel.
“I think breaking down the season has really helped, in that it’s not been a focus to win the league. Ultimately, that’s the end goal, of course, but because we’ve been working towards smaller more manageable targets, it [the potential league title] seems to be a by-product of achieving these smaller targets.”
As for the recruitment, Donnelly took a hands-on approach to bring in exactly what she thought the team needed – something that seems to have been a shrewd decision.
“I went out and replaced some players, but, to be fair to the girls that we have on board, we kept a large nucleus of the players from the previous season.
“We lost three players – two to the Super League and one due to personal reasons – but I’ve gone out there and bolstered the squad, and brought in some experienced players, which has helped, ultimately, as the competition for places has upped everybody’s game.
“We’ve just [this week] in training sat down for our third and final target-setting and, even though we’re within touching distance of achieving success in the league, the girls haven’t really focused on that.
“It’s about getting the amount of points they want to achieve. They have ownership of that. I give them guidance from a coach perspective, but I can’t control it once they cross that white line… although I have kicked a few imaginary balls throughout the season!”
Blackburn, who do not have a league game this weekend due to playing a FAWPL Cup semi-final at Charlton Athletic, know that if Middlesbrough were to lose at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday – although still mathematically possible – with their massively superior goal difference, the title is realistically won, with just one more point needed to seal it categorically.
But how other teams fair is not important to Donnelly: “I’m not really too bothered about teams in and around us. Our focus, the players focus, and everybody at the club’s focus is about what we do.
“We have our own standards, and that’s what we can control, so that’s our mind-set – looking at things that we can control.
“It’s a combination of things at Blackburn Rovers Ladies. It’s about setting standards, first and foremost. It’s about having a winning mentality and having resilience.
“That seems to have been the pivotal focus behind our success so far this season and albeit, the standards are set from the football club, the girls have ownership of it in terms of how it works for them.
“Evidently so far, and I’ve got to stress so far, because we’ve won absolutely nothing yet, that format and template has worked for us.”
It would be difficult to begrudge Donnelly – who eats, sleeps and breathes Blackburn Rovers – the title success that is undoubtedly coming their way this season.
After that, it will be all about winning the play-off game for Blackburn, and hopefully, for the team and their fans’ sake, see them take their place in WSL 2 next season – although we are sure there are one or two teams in the Southern Division that will hope to have a few things to say about that.
