AFC Bournemouth have got off to a sensational start this season – unbeaten so far as they top the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier.
It might have been unexpected for the outsider, considering their chaotic August, with manager Steve Cuss leaving and former player Helen Bleazard taking charge on an interim basis.
But with a string of wins – and one score draw – to their credit already, Bleazard has been given the job permanently.
She tells SheKicks.net exclusively that the series of events has been something of “a shock – but an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down.”
When she got the call asking her to take over temporarily, she was working in her day job in social housing.
“I got asked if I could take the afternoon off my work to coach the team. I had about an hour to prepare.
“Knowing it was the last week of pre-season as well, it’d be a very big adjustment for the girls. Obviously, they’ve had Steve – for some of them only for a number of weeks being new, but some have had them for five, six years as their manager, so I knew it was going to be an adjustment, and quite an emotional adjustment for quite a few players.
“The best thing I could do is I know what the players need, [having] as being a player myself. I just thought, ‘I need to steady the ship’, and regardless of whether I was there a week or a month or the whole season, all I had in my head was to make sure I don’t leave the girls in any disadvantage, and if I can give them as much knowledge or guidance and advice, as long as I can leave them in a better place, then that’s all I was focused on doing: trying to steady the ship and give them a bit of stability…to give them a bit of structure, so if anything did happen and I needed to come away from the job and someone else come in, then at least I’ve given them a bit of a structure and a base to be able to move forward with.”
Helen Bleazard: “Take it week by week”
Bleazard hung up her playing boots last season, and was coaching in the boys’ academy at the club. She was intending to go along and cheer the women on throughout the season.
“I’ve had a soft spot for Bournemouth, because I was there my last three seasons [before] I retired, but also I had my worst injury there, and the club were fantastic in terms of getting my recovery right as well. They sorted me out with the right scans, supported me and paid for my surgery as well. I wouldn’t be able to have got back, and played if it hadn’t been for them.
“So I [am] extremely grateful for them.”
Although Bleazard had coaching experience, managing a team was a different prospect, and one to which she had to adapt.
“The first few weeks, I was just running off pure energy, and I was going, ‘Take it week by week’.
“Then a few weeks ago, I made quite a few tactical adjustments in one game, and I’d done a lot of analysis with the girls, which some of them probably aren’t quite used to, but I really put my my ideas and my thoughts down on paper and presented it to the girls, and then when I saw it actually come out in the game, and what I thought was going to happen happened, it reassured me and cemented [in] myself that I can be a manager at this level and compete.”
“Helen Ward is the icon of Wales”
Bleazard’s own playing career was very distinguished, with caps at senior international level for Wales, and appearances in the Women’s Super League for Chelsea, Bristol Academy and her hometown club Yeovil. She has always balanced her day job with her football, and appreciates the flexibility she has to be able to coach her team now. She admits that seeing the growth of the women’s game in recent years, it’s inevitable to think about the “what-ifs” of her own career – and how she would have liked to have been a full-time professional footballer.
“I was coaching in the boys’ academy in our pre-season. We talk about growing the girls’ game and the [next] generations, but it was actually really nice how much of the men’s staff and the boys within my group were actually taking a real interest in [the Euros].”
Seeing Wales at an international tournament makes her very proud – and she’s particularly pleased for former team-mates such as Sophie Ingle and Jess Fishlock getting to play on the biggest stage.
She also mentions another former Wales player who is still involved in the National League – Watford’s head of women’s football Helen Ward, the country’s record goalscorer until Fishlock overtook her last year.
“Helen Ward is the icon of Wales, and for her to be still involved from a media point of view, I was so pleased for her as well. I messaged her saying, ‘You started this’. She’s been at the forefront of it, so I’m really pleased and proud that they got the opportunity.”
