Lewes head coach Emma Byrne won the Women’s FA Cup ten times during her own celebrated playing career.
This weekend she leads her FAWNL Southern Premier team out against WSL2 side Crystal Palace in the third round of this season’s competition.
And though Lewes might go in as underdogs, Byrne relishes the way the club operates – famously allocating equal resources to its men’s and women’s side, and still waving the flag for an Equal FA Cup.
It’s a sharp contrast to what she’s found since taking the hot seat at the Dripping Pan.
“I’ve been at a few clubs around the world and I’m ashamed to say that you do feel a little bit inferior because it’s not for you,” she said in a press conference on Thursday evening. “It’s always for the men’s teams – their club, their pitches, their gym, it’s their canteen.
“I think I can speak on behalf of the team – certainly, how I felt coming in – you feel at home [at Lewes], you feel like on a level. I mean, I haven’t even thought about the men’s team, to be quite honest here! And I think that just says it all because I just feel like this is our club. We come in, we work – it’s our choice what we do here, and it really does feel like that.
“Taking aside the money and stuff like that, it’s about respect. And I’ve always said that. And I do feel like the women’s team are respected here.”
Byrne added that everyone there wants to put the club on the map – and that she has been impressed with what she has seen since taking over this summer.
“It’s a great environment for me to be in as a coach and a developing coach. I’ve got great support from the staff.
“The girls are great. The level is really good. They’re willing to work. They want to win. They want to improve.”
Emma Byrne: We won’t make it easy for Palace
Ahead of Sunday’s cup fixture, Lynne Burrell, the club’s head of women’s football, reflected that the last time these two teams played was in the Championship, in a game that saw Crystal Palace promoted and Lewes relegated.
“Unfortunately that game still feels a little bit raw,” she said. “I think what happened following relegation, we almost had to entirely restructure our staffing, our players, all the resources that we had around the team. We went from daytime training on a more or less full-time schedule, going back to part-time training, so a lot of players and staff couldn’t come with us, unfortunately. So the upheaval that caused was enormous and we had to rebuild following that.
“So I’m not saying that we are not prepared going into this game. We are – just, unfortunately, we have fewer resources and fewer people to do it. But we will be prepared as best as we can.
“But there’s no doubt that the gap between the resources we have to do it and the resources that the likes of Crystal Palace have to do it are vastly different.”
But Byrne emphasised the power of home advantage at the Dripping Pan.
“It’s our home ground. We play well here. We’re very used to it. We’re very comfortable here. And we’re certainly not here to make it easy.”
