Assistant Head Coach, Mac Barlow explains how Blackpool FC Girls & Ladies started back in 2004, when three teams were formed to compete in the Lancashire FA Girls League.
The first trials were held at Easter 2004, with almost 100 players attending to make up two teams. With such a wealth of talent on show it was decided that we would start with three teams: two U-12 teams and an U-11s team.
The teams entered the Lancashire FA Leagues for their respective age, competing against Manchester United, Preston North End, Burnley, Bolton Wanderers and Everton.
With all three Blackpool FC teams finishing in the top half, the opening season was deemed a great success. Each year the structure has grown steadily and we are now able to offer football to females aged five to open age. Starting out with around 30 players in 2004, a decade later we have over 140 players. Our competitive teams range from U-9s through to our Ladies First Team, we also have a Development Centre for girls aged 5–10 years-old to come and improve their skills and meet new friends.
In 2008, we set up our first ladies team, a lot of these players fed through from our U-16s that season who were originally part of the U-12 side where it all began.
We’ve had a lot of success with players going through our youth system then going onto play for the first team. Currently, we have two ladies teams to accommodate players feeding through year after year. Currently the Ladies First Team squad and Reserve Team squad are aged 16–21; two very young squads, who are developing very well under the guidance of the dedicated volunteer coaches we have.
Importantly, our Ladies’ squads are offering competitive football at County and Regional level. Making it ideal for players to come and learn the game at County Level, with the more experienced players to play at a good standard in the North West Women’s Premier Division. In the first three seasons the ladies achieved three back-to-back promotions and now compete at Step 4 in the Women’s game.
Blackpool have also been close to getting promoted to the National structure in the previous two seasons and have missed out on a league title and promotion. They have had great support from Blackpool FC chairman Karl Oyston, to ensure the Ladies will be able to succeed when they reach that level.
We will be looking to add further teams at youth level to ensure we accommodate all Girls and Ladies of all abilities in Blackpool.
BFC Girls & Ladies Department is run on a voluntary basis, led by Head Coach Michael Corser and myself, along with a strong team of qualified, committed volunteer coaches.
It’s fantastic to see how far we have come and grown in such a short space of time. We are very proud of what we have built up and the ambitions we have to take it to the next level. We’ve had fantastic support from Karl Oyston since day one and hopefully his support will continue for many more years to come.
We will continue to keep building from the bottom and get girls playing at a younger age through our Development Centre and Youth set-up. That’s worked very well for us over the years; we now have girls as young as five attending our sessions which is fantastic to see and bodes well for the future of Blackpool FC Girls and Ladies.
What we’ve always had at this Club is stability, the right people at the top with a wealth of experience and knowledge of the female game, everyone is here for the right reasons to retain, grow and most of all develop female footballers.
All images by Phill Heywood
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