Derby County Football Club Women

Derby County Women are an English women's football club affiliated with Derby County F.C. The first team currently play in the FA Women's National League North Division.

In 2008–09 the club won promotion to the league from the Midland Combination Women's Football League, after beating Crewe 4–2 at Pride Park. In addition to the first team, the club runs a reserve team who compete within the national reserve team pyramid, and nine academy teams that compete in the Derbyshire Girls League and the Central Warwickshire Girls League. The club enjoys a strong working relationship with the Derby County Girls Regional Talent Centre, allowing a dedicated player pathway from youth football into the Derby County Women senior squads.

History

The Birth of Derby County FC Women

The club that was to become Derby County WFC started out as the idea of Sheila Rollinson and Jess Reid, who at the time were both playing for the Coventry-based ladies side Holbrooks Athletic. Sheila had recently moved to the Derby area and Jess lived in Burton, so they came up with the idea of forming a new more locally based team.

Adverts for players were placed in both the Burton Mail and the Derby Evening Telegraph and at that time more of the replies came from the Burton area, so Burton Wanderers was born. The club's first season was 1978/9 in the Midland League (which later became the West Midlands League) and saw the club playing at Shobnall Fields in Burton, with Phil Rollinson as manager and Bob Reid acting as club secretary. Training sessions were held in Bitham School sports hall.

After one season in the Midland league the club decided to move to the Nottingham League (later the East Midlands League) due to the standard of football being of a higher level. At this time a national women's league was not in place and as such the club regularly played against teams such as Doncaster Belles, which at the time contained most of the England team. Junior leagues were not in place and with g